s
character; also I told her, that as she had a good fortune, she had no
need to stoop to the disaster of the time; that it was enough that the
men could insult us that had but little money to recommend us, but if
she suffered such an affront to pass upon her without resenting it, she
would be rendered low-prized upon all occasions, and would be the
contempt of all the women in that part of the town; that a woman can
never want an opportunity to be revenged of a man that has used her
ill, and that there were ways enough to humble such a fellow as that,
or else certainly women were the most unhappy creatures in the world.

I found she was very well pleased with the discourse, and she told me
seriously that she would be very glad to make him sensible of her just
resentment, and either to bring him on again, or have the satisfaction
of her revenge being as public as possible.

I told her, that if she would take my advice, I would tell her how she
should obtain her wishes in both those things, and that I would engage
I would bring the man to her door again, and make him beg to be let in.
She smiled at that, and soon let me see, that if he came to her door,
her resentment was not so great as to give her leave to let him stand
long there.

However, she listened very willingly to my offer of advice; so I told
her that the first thing she ought to do was a piece of justice to
herself, namely, that whereas she had been told by several people that
he had reported among the ladies that he had left her, and pretended to
give the advantage of the negative to himself, she should take care to
have it well spread among the women--which she could not fail of an
opportunity to do in a neighbourhood so addicted to family news as that
she live in was--that she had inquired into his circumstances, and
found he was not the man as to estate he pretended to be. 'Let them be
told, madam,' said I, 'that you had been well informed that he was not
the man that you expected, and that you thought it was not safe to
meddle with him; that you heard he was of an ill temper, and that he
boasted how he had used the women ill upon many occasions, and that
particularly he was debauched in his morals', etc. The last of which,
indeed, had some truth in it; but at the same time I did not find that
she seemed to like him much the worse for that part.

As I had put this into her head, she came most readily into it.
Immediately she went to work to find ins