2. CHAPTER II.
A short Description of Squire Allworthy, and a fuller Account of
Miss Bridget Allworthy, his Sister
In that part of the western division of this kingdom which is
commonly called Somersetshire, there lately lived, and perhaps lives
still, a gentleman whose name was Allworthy, and who might well be
called the favourite of both nature and fortune; for both of these
seem to have contended which should bless and enrich him most. In this
contention, nature may seem to some to have come off victorious, as
she bestowed on him many gifts, while fortune had only one gift in her
power; but in pouring forth this, she was so very profuse, that others
perhaps may think this single endowment to have been more than
equivalent to all the various blessings which he enjoyed from
nature. From the former of these, he derived an agreeable person, a
sound constitution, a solid understanding, and a benevolent heart;
by the latter, he was decreed to the inheritance of one of the largest
estates in the county.
This gentleman had in his youth married a very worthy and
beautiful woman, of whom he had been extremely fond: by her he had
three children, all of whom died in their infancy. He had likewise had
the misfortune of burying this beloved wife herself, about five
years before the time in which this history chuses to set out. This
loss, however great, he bore like a man of sense and constancy, though
it must be confest he would often talk a little whimsically on this
head; for he sometimes said he looked on himself as still married, and
considered his wife as only gone a little before him, a journey
which he should most certainly, sooner or later, take after her; and
that he had not the least doubt of meeting her again in a place
where he should never part with her more- sentiments for which his
sense was arraigned by one part of his neighbours, his religion by a
second, and his sincerity by a third.
He now lived, for the most part, retired in the country, with one
sister, for whom he had a very tender affection. This lady was now
somewhat past the age of thirty, an aera at which, in the opinion of
the malicious, the title of old maid may with no impropriety be
assumed. She was of that species of women whom you commend rather
for good qualities than beauty, and who are generally called, by their
own sex, very good sort of women- as good a sort of woman, madam, as
you would wish to know. Indeed, she was so far from regretting want of
beauty, that she never mentioned that perfection, if it can be
called one, without contempt; and would often thank God she was not as
handsome as Miss Such-a-one, whom perhaps beauty had led into errors
which she might have otherwise avoided. Miss Bridget Allworthy (for
that was the name of this lady) very rightly conceived the charms of
person in a woman to be no better than snares for herself, as well
as for others; and yet so discreet was she in her conduct, that her
prudence was as much on the guard as if she had all the snares to
apprehend which were ever laid for her whole sex. Indeed, I have
observed, though it may seem unaccountable to the reader, that this
guard of prudence, like the trained bands, is always readiest to go on
duty where there is the least danger. It often basely and cowardly
deserts those paragons for whom the men are all wishing, sighing,
dying, and spreading every net in their power; and constantly
attends at the heels of that higher order of women for whom the
other sex have a more distant and awful respect, and whom (from
despair, I suppose, of success) they never venture to attack.
Reader, I think proper, before we proceed any farther together, to
acquaint thee that I intend to digress, through this whole history, as
often as I see occasion, of which I am myself a better judge than any
pitiful critic whatever; and here I must desire all those critics to
mind their own business, and not to intermeddle with affairs or
works which no ways concern them; for till they produce the
authority by which they are constituted judges, I shall not plead to
their jurisdiction.