3. CHAPTER III.
An odd Accident which befel Mr. Allworthy at his return home--the decent
Behaviour of Mrs. Deborah Wilkins; with some proper Animadversions on
Bastards
I have told my reader, in the preceding chapter, that Mr.
Allworthy inherited a large fortune; that he had a good heart, and
no family. Hence, doubtless, it will be concluded by many that he
lived like an honest man, owed no one a shilling, took nothing but
what was his own, kept a good house, entertained his neighbours with a
hearty welcome at his table, and was charitable to the poor, i.e.,
to those who had rather beg than work, by giving them the offals
from it; that he died immensely rich and built an hospital.
And true it is that he did many of these things; but had he done
nothing more I should have left him to have recorded his own merit
on some fair freestone over the door of that hospital. Matters of a
much more extraordinary kind are to be the subject of this history, or
I should grossly mis-spend my time in writing so voluminous a work;
and you, my sagacious friend, might with equal profit and pleasure
travel through some pages which certain droll authors have been
facetiously pleased to call The History of England.
Mr. Allworthy had been absent a full quarter of a year in London, on
some very particular business, though I know not what it was; but
judge of its importance by its having detained him so long from
home, whence he had not been absent a month at a time during the space
of many years. He came to his house very late in the evening, and
after a short supper with his sister, retired much fatigued to his
chamber. Here, having spent some minutes on his knees- a custom which
he never broke through on any account- he was preparing to step into
bed, when, upon opening the cloathes, to his great surprize he
beheld an infant, wrapt up in some coarse linen, in a sweet and
profound sleep, between his sheets. He stood some time lost in
astonishment at this sight; but, as good nature had always the
ascendant in his mind, he soon began to be touched with sentiments
of compassion for the little wretch before him. He then rang his bell,
and ordered an elderly woman-servant to rise immediately, and come
to him; and in the meantime was so eager in contemplating the beauty
of innocence, appearing in those lively colours with which infancy and
sleep always display it, that his thoughts were too much engaged to
reflect that he was in his shirt when the matron came in. She had
indeed given her master sufficient time to dress himself; for out of
respect to him, and regard to decency, she had spent many minutes in
adjusting her hair at the looking-glass, notwithstanding all the hurry
in which she had been summoned by the servant, and though her
master, for aught she knew, lay expiring in an apoplexy, or in some
other fit.
It will not be wondered at that a creature who had so strict a
regard to decency in her own person, should be shocked at the least
deviation from it in another. She therefore no sooner opened the door,
and saw her master standing by the bedside in his shirt, with a candle
in his hand, than she started back in a most terrible fright, and
might perhaps have swooned away, had he not now recollected his
being undrest, and put an end to her terrors by desiring her to stay
without the door till he had thrown some cloathes over his back, and
was become incapable of shocking the pure eyes of Mrs. Deborah
Wilkins, who, though in the fifty-second year of her age, vowed she
had never beheld a man without his coat. Sneerers and prophane wits
may perhaps laugh at her first fright; yet my graver reader, when he
considers the time of night, the summons from her bed, and the
situation in which she found her master, will highly justify and
applaud her conduct, unless the prudence which must be supposed to
attend maidens at that period of life at which Mrs. Deborah had
arrived, should a little lessen his admiration.
When Mrs. Deborah returned into the room, and was acquainted by
her master with the finding the little infant, her consternation was
rather greater than his had been; nor could she refrain from crying
out, with great horror of accent as well as look, "My good sir! what's
to be done?" Mr. Allworthy answered, she must take care of the child
that evening, and in the morning he would give orders to provide it
a nurse. "Yes, sir," says she; "and I hope your worship will send
out your warrant to take up the hussy its mother, for she must be
one of the neighbourhood; and I should be glad to see her committed to
Bridewell, and whipt at the cart's tail. Indeed, such wicked sluts
cannot be too severely punished. I'll warrant 'tis not her first, by
her impudence in laying it to your worship." "In laying it to me,
Deborah!" answered Allworthy: "I can't think she hath any such design.
I suppose she hath only taken this method to provide for her child;
and truly I am glad she hath not done worse." "I don't know what is
worse," cries Deborah, "than for such wicked strumpets to lay their
sins at honest men's doors; and though your worship knows your own
innocence, yet the world is censorious; and it hath been many an
honest man's hap to pass for the father of children he never begot;
and if your worship should provide for the child, it may make the
people the apter to believe; besides, why should your worship
provide for what the parish is obliged to maintain? For my own part,
if it was an honest man's child, indeed- but for my own part, it goes
against me to touch these misbegotten wretches, whom I don't look upon
as my fellow-creatures. Faugh! how it stinks! It doth not smell like a
Christian. If I might be so bold to give my advice, I would have it
put in a basket, and sent out and laid at the churchwarden's door.
It is a good night, only a little rainy and windy; and if it was
well wrapt up, and put in a warm basket, it is two to one but it lives
till it is found in the morning. But if it should not, we have discharged
our duty in taking proper care of it; and it is, perhaps, better
for such creatures to die in a state of innocence, than to grow up and
imitate their mothers; for nothing better can be expected of them."
There were some strokes in this speech which perhaps would have
offended Mr. Allworthy, had he strictly attended to it; but he had now
got one of his fingers into the infant's hand, which, by its gentle
pressure, seeming to implore his assistance, had certainly outpleaded
the eloquence of Mrs. Deborah, had it been ten times greater than it
was. He now gave Mrs. Deborah positive orders to take the child to her
own bed, and to call up a maidservant to provide it pap, and other
things, against it waked. He likewise ordered that proper cloathes
should be procured for it early in the morning, and that it should
be brought to himself as soon as he was stirring.
Such was the discernment of Mrs. Wilkins, and such the respect she
bore her master, under whom she enjoyed a most excellent place, that
her scruples gave way to his peremptory commands; and she took the
child under her arms, without any apparent disgust at the illegality
of its birth; and declaring it was a sweet little infant, walked off
with it to her own chamber.
Allworthy here betook himself to those pleasing slumbers which a
heart that hungers after goodness is apt to enjoy when thoroughly
satisfied. As these are possibly sweeter than what are occasioned by
any other hearty meal, I should take more pains to display them to the
reader, if I knew any air to recommend him to for the procuring such
an appetite.