ose to spare that little I had,
and live cheap?' She could not deny one word, but said she had been
told in London that I had a very great fortune, and that it lay in the
Bank of England.

'And now, dear sir,' said I, turning myself to my new spouse again, 'be
so just to me as to tell me who has abused both you and me so much as
to make you believe I was a fortune, and prompt you to court me to this
marriage?' He could not speak a word, but pointed to her; and, after
some more pause, flew out in the most furious passion that ever I saw a
man in my life, cursing her, and calling her all the whores and hard
names he could think of; and that she had ruined him, declaring that
she had told him I had #15,000, and that she was to have #500 of him
for procuring this match for him. He then added, directing his speech
to me, that she was none of his sister, but had been his whore for two
years before, that she had had #100 of him in part of this bargain, and
that he was utterly undone if things were as I said; and in his raving
he swore he would let her heart's blood out immediately, which
frightened her and me too. She cried, said she had been told so in the
house where I lodged. But this aggravated him more than before, that
she should put so far upon him, and run things such a length upon no
other authority than a hearsay; and then, turning to me again, said
very honestly, he was afraid we were both undone. 'For, to be plain,
my dear, I have no estate,' says he; 'what little I had, this devil has
made me run out in waiting on you and putting me into this equipage.'
She took the opportunity of his being earnest in talking with me, and
got out of the room, and I never saw her more.

I was confounded now as much as he, and knew not what to say. I
thought many ways that I had the worst of it, but his saying he was
undone, and that he had no estate neither, put me into a mere
distraction. 'Why,' says I to him, 'this has been a hellish juggle,
for we are married here upon the foot of a double fraud; you are undone
by the disappointment, it seems; and if I had had a fortune I had been
cheated too, for you say you have nothing.'

'You would indeed have been cheated, my dear,' says he, 'but you would
not have been undone, for #15,000 would have maintained us both very
handsomely in this country; and I assure you,' added he, 'I had
resolved to have dedicated every groat of it to you; I would not have
wronged you of a shilli