heir self-will has never been
subdued; their idleness has laid them open to every temptation, and
their abundance has enabled them to gratify every desire; their
time, that precious talent, has been entirely wasted. Every thing
they have been taught to do is of no use, while they are utterly
unacquainted with all which they ought to have known. I deplore Miss
Polly's false step. That she should have married a runaway shopman,
turned stroller, I truly lament. But for what better husband was she
qualified? For the wife of a farmer she was too idle; for the wife
of a tradesman she was too expensive; for the wife of a gentleman
she was too ignorant. You yourself was most to blame. You expected
her to act wisely, though you never taught her that _fear of God
which is the beginning of wisdom_. I owe it to you, as a friend, and
to myself as a Christian, to declare, that your practices in the
common transactions of life, as well as your present misfortune, are
almost the natural consequences of those false principles which I
protested against when you were at my house."[12]

[12] See Part II.

Mrs. Bragwell attempted several times to interrupt Mr. Worthy, but
her husband would not permit it. He felt the force of all his friend
said, and encouraged him to proceed. Mr. Worthy thus went on: "It
grieves me to say how much your own indiscretion has contributed
even to bring on your present misfortune. You gave your countenance
to this very company of strollers, though you knew they were acting
in defiance of the laws of the land, to say no worse. They go from
town to town, and from barn to barn, stripping the poor of their
money, the young of their innocence, and all of their time. Do you
remember with how much pride you told me that you had bespoke _The
Bold Stroke for a Wife_, for the benefit of this very Mr. Frederic
Theodosius? To this pernicious ribaldry you not only carried your
own family, but wasted I know not how much money in treating your
workmen's wives and children, in these hard times, too, when they
have scarcely bread to eat, or a shoe on their feet; and all this
only that you might have the absurd pleasure of seeing those
flattering words, _By desire of Mr. Bragwell_, stuck up in print at
the public house, on the blacksmith's shed, at the turnpike-gate,
and on the barn-door."

Mr. Bragwell acknowledged that his friend's rebuke was too just, and
he looked so very contrite as to raise the pity of Mr. Worthy, who,