The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding (top young adult novels TXT) 📕

voice; and, though his sentences were short, they were still interrupted with many hums and ha’s, ay ays, and other expletives: so that, though he accompanied his words with certain explanatory gestures, such as shaking or nodding the head, or pointing with his forefinger, he generally left his hearers to understand more than he expressed; nay, he commonly gave them a hint that he knew much more than he thought proper to disclose. This last circumstance alone may, indeed, very well account for his character of wisdom; since men are strangely inclined to worship what they do not understand. A grand secret, upon which several imposers on mankind have totally relied for the success of their frauds.

This polite person, now taking his wife aside, asked her “what she thought of the ladies lately arrived?”⁠—“Think of them?” said the wife, “why, what should I think of them?”⁠—“I know,” answered he, “what I think. The guides tell strange stories. One pretends to be come from Gloucester, and the other from Upton; and neither of them, for what I can find, can tell whither they are going. But what people ever travel across the country from Upton hither, especially to London? And one of the maidservants, before she alighted from her horse, asked if this was not the London road? Now I have put all these circumstances together, and whom do you think I have found them out to be?”⁠—“Nay,” answered she, “you know I never pretend to guess at your discoveries.”⁠—“It is a good girl,” replied he, chucking her under the chin; “I must own you have always submitted to my knowledge of these matters. Why, then, depend upon it; mind what I say⁠—depend upon it, they are certainly some of the rebel ladies, who, they say, travel with the young Chevalier; and have taken a roundabout way to escape the Duke’s army.”

“Husband,” quoth the wife, “you have certainly hit it; for one of them is dressed as fine as any princess; and, to be sure, she looks for all the world like one.⁠—But yet, when I consider one thing”⁠—“When you consider,” cries the landlord contemptuously⁠—“Come, pray let’s hear what you consider.”⁠—“Why, it is,” answered the wife, “that she is too humble to be any very great lady: for, while our Betty was warming the bed, she called her nothing but child, and my dear, and sweetheart; and, when Betty offered to pull off her shoes and stockings, she would not suffer her, saying, she would not give her the trouble.”

“Pugh!” answered the husband, “that is nothing. Dost think, because you have seen some great ladies rude and uncivil to persons below them, that none of them know how to behave themselves when they come before their inferiors? I think I know people of fashion when I see them⁠—I think I do. Did not she call for a glass of water when she came in? Another sort of women would have called for a dram; you know they would. If she be not a woman of very great quality, sell me for a fool; and, I believe, those who buy me will have a bad bargain. Now, would a woman of her quality travel without a footman, unless upon some such extraordinary occasion?”⁠—“Nay, to be sure, husband,” cries she, “you know these matters better than I, or most folk.”⁠—“I think I do know something,” said he.⁠—“To be sure,” answered the wife, “the poor little heart looked so piteous, when she sat down in the chair, I protest I could not help having a compassion for her almost as much as if she had been a poor body. But what’s to be done, husband? If an she be a rebel, I suppose you intend to betray her up to the court. Well, she’s a sweet-tempered, good-humoured lady, be she what she will, and I shall hardly refrain from crying when I hear she is hanged or beheaded.”⁠—“Pooh!” answered the husband.⁠—“But, as to what’s to be done, it is not so easy a matter to determine. I hope, before she goes away, we shall have the news of a battle; for, if the Chevalier should get the better, she may gain us interest at court, and make our fortunes without betraying her.”⁠—“Why, that’s true,” replied the wife; “and I heartily hope she will have it in her power. Certainly she’s a sweet good lady; it would go horribly against me to have her come to any harm.”⁠—“Pooh!” cries the landlord, “women are always so tenderhearted. Why, you would not harbour rebels, would you?”⁠—“No, certainly,” answered the wife; “and as for betraying her, come what will on’t, nobody can blame us. It is what anybody would do in our case.”

While our politic landlord, who had not, we see, undeservedly the reputation of great wisdom among his neighbours, was engaged in debating this matter with himself (for he paid little attention to the opinion of his wife), news arrived that the rebels had given the duke the slip, and had got a day’s march towards London; and soon after arrived a famous Jacobite squire, who, with great joy in his countenance, shook the landlord by the hand, saying, “All’s our own, boy, ten thousand honest Frenchmen are landed in Suffolk. Old England forever! ten thousand French, my brave lad! I am going to tap away directly.”

This news determined the opinion of the wise man, and he resolved to make his court to the young lady when she arose; for he had now (he said) discovered that she was no other than Madam Jenny Cameron herself.

III

A very short chapter, in which, however, is a sun, a moon, a star, and an angel.

The sun (for he keeps very good hours at this time of the year) had been some time retired to rest when Sophia arose greatly refreshed by her sleep; which, short as it was, nothing but her extreme fatigue could have occasioned; for, though she had told her maid, and perhaps