ranklin was a remarkably handsome and fascinating young man. The
courtship proceeded successfully and rapidly.

The reader will be interested in seeing Franklin's own account of this
affair. He writes, in his Autobiography:

"Mrs. Godfrey projected a match with a relation's daughter,
took opportunities of bringing us often together, till a
serious courtship on my part ensued; the girl being, in
herself, very deserving. The old folks encouraged me by
continual invitations to supper, and by leaving us together,
till at length it was time to explain. Mrs. Godfrey managed
our little treaty. I let her know I expected as much money
with their daughter as would pay off my remaining debt for
the printing house; which I believe was not then above a
hundred pounds. She brought me word they had no such sum to
spare; I said they might mortgage their house in the
loan-office. The answer to this, after some days, was, that
they did not approve the match; that, on inquiry of Mr.
Bradford, they had been informed the printing business was
not a profitable one, the types would soon be worn out, and
more wanted; that Keimer and David Harvy had failed one after
the other, and I should probably soon follow them; and
therefore I was forbidden the house, and the daughter was
shut up."

Occasionally Franklin had gone to the home of Mrs. Read, the mother of
the unhappy Deborah. His conscience reproached him for his conduct to
that good girl. She was always dejected and solitary, and with a
broken heart clung to her mother, her only friend. It is doubtful
whether she were ever legally married to Rogers. It was rumored that
at the time of their marriage, he was the husband of one, if not more
wives. If legally married, there was another serious obstacle in her
path. Rogers had run away to the West Indies. Rumor alone had
announced his death. He might be still living.

Franklin's sympathy gradually became excited in her behalf. And at
length he proposed that, regardless of all the risks, they should be
married. It seems that he had announced to her very distinctly that he
had a living child, and very honorably he had decided that that child
of dishonor was to be taken home and trained as his own.

These were sad nuptials. The world-weary wife knew not but that she
had another husband still living, and a stigma, indelible, rested upon
Franklin. The