Даниэль Дефо - Roxana

By this time I had dress’d me, as well as I could, for tho’ I had good Linnen left still, yet I had but a poor Head-Dress, and no Knots, but old Fragments; no Necklace, no Ear-Rings; all those things were gone long ago for meer Bread.

However, I was tight [53] tight : tidy, neat. and clean, and in better Plight than he had seen me in a great while, and he look’d extreamly pleas’d to see me so; for he said I look’d so disconsolate, and so afflicted before, that it griev’d him to see me; and he bade me pluck up a good Heart, for he hop’d to put me in a Condition to live in the World, and be beholden to nobody.

I told him that was impossible, for I must be beholden to him for it, for all the Friends I had in the World wou’d not, or cou’d not, do so much for me as that he spoke of. Well, Widow, says he , so he call’d me, and so indeed I was in the worst Sence that desolate Word cou’d be us’d in, if you are beholden to me, you shall be beholden to nobody else.

By this time Dinner was ready, and Amy came in to lay the Cloth, and indeed, it was happy there was none to Dine but he and I, for I had but six Plates left in the House, and but two Dishes; however, he knew how things were, and bade me make no Scruple about bringing out what I had, he hop’d to see me in a better Plight, he did not come, he said , to be Entertain’d, but to Entertain me, and Comfort and Encourage me: Thus he went on, speaking so chearfully to me, and such chearful things, that it was a Cordial to my very Soul, to hear him speak.

Well, we went to Dinner, I’m sure I had not eat a good Meal hardly in a Twelvemonth, at least, not of such a Joint of Meat as the Loin of Veal was; I eat indeed very heartily, and so did he, and he made me drink three or four Glasses of Wine, so that, in short, my Spirits were lifted up to a Degree I had not been us’d to, and I was not only chearful, but merry, and so he press’d me to be.

I told him, I had a great deal of Reason to be merry, seeing he had been so kind to me, and had given me Hopes of recovering me from the worst Circumstances that ever Woman of any sort of Fortune, was sunk into; that he cou’d not but believe that what he had said to me, was like Life from the Dead; that it was like recovering one Sick from the Brink of the Grave; how I should ever make him a Return any way suitable, was what I had not yet had time to think of; I cou’d only say, that I should never forget it while I had Life, and shou’d be always ready to acknowlege it.

He said, That was all he desir’d of me, that his Reward would be, the Satisfaction of having rescued me from Misery; that he found he was obliging one that knew what Gratitude meant; that he would make it his Business to make me compleatly Easie, first or last, if it lay in his Power; and in the mean time, he bade me consider of any thing that I thought he might do for me, for my Advantage, and in order to make me perfectly easie.

After we had talk’d thus, he bade me be chearful; come, says he, lay aside these melancholly things, and let us be merry: Amy waited at the Table, and she smil’d, and laugh’d, and was so merry she could hardly contain it, for the Girl lov’d me to an Excess, hardly to be describ’d; and it was such an unexpected thing to hear any one talk to her Mistress, that the Wench was besides herself almost, and as soon as Dinner was over, Amy went up-Stairs, and put on her Best Clothes too, and came down dress’d like a Gentlewoman.

We sat together talking of a thousand Things, of what had been, and what was to be, all the rest of the Day, and in the Evening he took his Leave of me, with a thousand Expressions of Kindness and Tenderness, and true Affection to me, but offer’d not the least of what my Maid Amy had suggested.

At his going away, he took me in his Arms, protested an honest Kindness to me; said a thousand kind things to me, which I cannot now recollect, and after kissing me twenty times, or thereabouts, put a Guinea into my Hand; which, he said, was for my present Supply, and told me, that he would see me again, before ’twas out; also he gave Amy Half a Crown.

When he was gone, Well, Amy, said I , are you convinc’d now that he is an honest as well as a true Friend, and that there has been nothing, not the least Appearance of any thing of what you imagin’d, in his Behaviour: Yes, says Amy , I am, but I admire at it; he is such a Friend as the World, sure, has not abundance of to show.

I am sure, says I , he is such a Friend as I have long wanted, and as I have as much Need of as any Creature in the World has, or ever had; and, in short, I was so overcome with the Comfort of it, that I sat down and cry’d for Joy a good-while, as I had formerly cry’d for Sorrow. Amy and I went to Bed that Night (for Amy lay with me) pretty early, but lay chatting almost all Night about it, and the Girl was so transported, that she got up two or three times in the Night, and danc’d about the Room in her Shift; in short, the Girl was half distracted with the Joy of it; a Testimony still of her violent Affection for her Mistress, in which no Servant ever went beyond her.

We heard no more of him for two Days, but the third Day he came again; then he told me, with the same Kindness, that he had order’d me a Supply of Houshold Goods for the furnishing the House; that in particular, he had sent me back all the Goods that he had seiz’d for Rent, which consisted, indeed, of the best of my former Furniture; and now, says he, I’ll tell you what I have had in my Head for you, for your present Supply, and that is, says he , that the House being well furnish’d, you shall Let it out to Lodgings, for the Summer Gentry, says he , by which you will easily get a good comfortable Subsistance, especially seeing you shall pay me no Rent for two Years, nor after neither, unless you can afford it.

This was the first View I had of living comfortably indeed, and it was a very probable Way, I must confess; seeing we had very good Conveniences, six Rooms on a Floor, and three Stories high: While he was laying down the Scheme of my Management, came a Cart to the Door with a Load of Goods, and an Upholsterer’s Man to put them up; they were chiefly the Furniture of two Rooms, which he had carried away for his two Years Rent, with two fine Cabinets, and some Peir-Glasses, out of the Parlour, and several other valuable things.

These were all restor’d to their Places, and he told me he gave them me freely, as a Satisfaction for the Cruelty he had us’d me with before; and the Furniture of one Room being finish’d, and set up, he told me, he would furnish one Chamber for himself, and would come and be one of my Lodgers, if I would give him Leave.

I told him, he ought not to ask me Leave, who had so much Right to make himself welcome; so the House began to look in some tollerable Figure, and clean; the Garden also, in about a Fortnight’s Work, began to look something less like a Wilderness than it us’d to do; and he order’d me to put up a Bill for Letting Rooms, reserving one for himself, to come to as he saw Occasion.

When all was done to his Mind, as to placing the Goods, he seem’d very well pleas’d, and we din’d together again of his own providing, and the Upholsterer’s Man gone; after Dinner he took me by the Hand, Come, now Madam, says he, you must show me your House, (for he had a-Mind to see every thing over again). No, Sir, said I, but I’ll go show you your House, if you please; so we went up thro’ all the Rooms, and in the Room which was appointed for himself, Amy was doing something; Well, Amy , says he, I intend to Lye with you to Morrow-Night; To Night, if you please Sir , says Amy very innocently, your Room is quite ready : Well Amy, says he , I am glad you are so willing: No, says Amy , I mean your Chamber is ready to-Night, and away she run out of the Room asham’d enough; for the Girl meant no Harm, whatever she had said to me in private.