November 20.—
We have just received
a very odd piece of news, that I
own has a little alarmed me. It is, that
the widow of Mr. Arnold's brother is
found to be with child. There was o
mention of this at the time her husband
died, nor indeed any cause to suspect it;
but the strongest presumptions in the
world to the contrary, as her husband and
she lived a-part. It has not been even
whispered, till since our arrival in town.
The lady pretends that she was not conscious
of it herself till within this fortnight;
yet her husband has been dead four months.
This I am told is very possible, though
not very common. She has herself wrote
a letter to Mr. Arnold, to inform him of
it; at the same time declaring, that she
and her late husband had been reconciled
a little before his death; and that, had he
recovered, she was to have lived with him
again. All this is very strange. The
elder Mr. Arnold killed himself with excessive
drinking. His death approached
him by slow degrees; but as he could
never be persuaded to think it near, he
took not the least care either of his spiritual
or temporal concerns. His brother was
in the country when he was seized with
his last illness, which he had precipitated
by some extravagant excess. He was
almost at the last extremity before he
could be prevailed on to let a physician
attend him, or suffer his brother to be
sent for. In regard to the latter, he
told those about him, that as he was
his heir, of course he had made no
will. He mentioned not his wife. The
jointure which had been settled on her,
he allowed her for a separate maintenance.
They had for a long time pursued separate
pleasures, and not of his friends
knew that they had ever met, or so much
as seen one another from the time they
parted. My Mr. Arnold arrived in town
just time enough to close his brother's
eyes; he was speechless when he came,
and expired in less than an hour after he
entered his chamber.
As his wife had been very obnoxious
to the family, there was little notice taken
of her by them, more than what common
forms require. She seemed as indifferent
about the death of her husband, as she
had been towards him in his life-time; and
did not then hint a word of this reconciliation
between them, or of her having had
an interview with him. I am told, she is
a very weak, as well as a very loose woman;
and Mr. Arnold thinks she has got
into the hands of some designing person.
However that matter may be, it is a
serious affair; and he designs to take the
opinion of an eminent lawyer upon it.
My poor dear mother is frightened sadly.
If this child should make its appearance
in the world time enough to prove the
possibility of its being the offspring of
the last Mr. Arnold, she says, it must be
considered by the law as his heir, notwithstanding
the husband and wife lived
apart. Mr. Arnold laughs, or affects
to laugh at this; we shall, however, wait
with patience till the lady is brought to-bed.
