She was with Child; and though she would easily have found Means to have skreen'd even this from the Knowledge of the World, had she been at liberty to have acted with the same unquestionable Authority over herself, as she did before the coming of her Mother, yet now all her Invention was at a Loss for a Stratagem to impose on a Woman of her Penetration: – By eating little, lacing prodigious strait, and the Advantage of a great Hoop-Petticoat, however, her Bigness was not taken notice of, and, perhaps, she would not have been suspected till the Time of her going into the Country, where her Mother design'd to send her, and from whence she intended to make her escape to some Place where she might be delivered with Secrecy, if the Time of it had not happen'd much Sooner than she expected. – A Ball being at Court, the good

that many Ages has produced.

He continued to visit there, to enquire after her Health every Day

where she was just deliver'd of a fine Girl, cry'd out, I will not be impos'd o

t last pronounc'd the Name of Beauplaisir.

SHE kept the House, and her Gentlemen-Equipage for about a Fortnight, in which Time she continu'd to write to him as Fantomina and the Widow Bloomer, and received the Visits he sometimes made to each; but his Behaviour to both was grown so cold, that she began to grow as weary of receiving his now insipid Caresses as he was of offering them: She was beginning to think in what Manner she [Page 287] should drop these two Characters

He was so much out of Humour, however, at the Disappointment of his Curiosity, that he resolv'd never to make a second Visit. – Finding her in an outer Room, he made no Scruples of expressing the Sense he had of the little Trust she reposed in him, and at last plainly told her, he could not submit to receive Obligations from a Lady, who thought him uncapable of keeping a Secret, which she made no Difficulty of letting her Servants into. – He resented, – he once more entreated, – he said all that Man could do, to prevail on her to unfold the Mystery; but all his Adjurations were fruitless; and he went out of the House determin'd never to re-enter it, till she should pay the Price of his Company with the Discovery of her Face and Circumstances. – She suffer'd him to go with this Resolution, and doubted not but he would recede from it, when he reflected on the happy Moments they had pass'd together; but if he did not, she comforted herself with the Design of forming some other Stratagem, with which to impose on him a fourth Time.

came, but came in the Dark; which being no more than he expected by the former Part of her Proceedings, he said nothing of; but as much Satisfaction as he found in her Embraces, nothing ever long'd for the Approach of Day with more Impatience than he did

Her fine Shape, and Air, and Neck, appear'd to great Advantage

she been less charm'd with his renew'd Eagerness of Desire, she scarce would have had the Power of refusing him; but in granting this Request, she was not without a Thought that he had another Reason for making it besides the Extremity of his Passion, and had it immediately in her Head how to disappoint him.

and that this Restraint was the greatest Enemy imaginable to the Happiness of them both:

I have him always raving, wild, impatient, longing, dying.

pplauding her own Strength of Genius,

Your everlasting Slave,      

Though to tell me I am happy enough to be lik'd by a Woman, such, as by your Manner of Writing, I imagine you to be, is an Honour which I can never sufficiently acknowledge, yet I know not how I am able to content myself with admiring the Wonders of your Wit alone:

which his many Successes with the Ladies gave him Encouragement enough to believe

FANTOMINA: OR, LOVE in a Maze

Mrs

PERSONS OF CONDITION