me not too much, said
he; for, if I should as much forget myself as you have done, you'd have
no more of a brother in me, than I have a sister in you.

Who married you? said she: tell me that! Was it not a broken attorney
in a parson's habit? Tell me truly, in the wench's hearing. When she's
undeceived, she'll know how to behave herself better! Thank God, thought
I, it is not so.

No, said he; and I'll tell you, that I bless God, I abhorred that
project, before it was brought to bear: and Mr. Williams married
us.--Nay then, said she--but answer me another question or two, I
beseech you: Who gave her away? Parson Peters, said he. Where was the
ceremony performed? In my little chapel, which you may see, as it was
put in order on purpose.

Now, said she, I begin to fear there is something in it! But who was
present? said she. Methinks, replied he, I look like a fine puppy, to
suffer myself to be thus interrogated by an insolent sister: but, if
you must know, Mrs. Jewkes was present. O the procuress! said she: But
nobody else? Yes, said he, all my heart and soul!

Wretch! said she; and what would thy father and mother have said,
had they lived to this day? Their consents, replied he, I should have
thought it my duty to ask; but not yours, madam.

Suppose, said she, I had married my father's groom! what would you have
said to that?--I could not have behaved worse, replied he, than you have
done. And would you not have thought, said she, I had deserved it.

Said he, Does your pride let you see no difference in the case you put?
None at all, said she. Where can the difference be between a beggar's
son married by a lady, or a beggar's daughter made a gentleman's wife?

Then I'll tell you, replied he; the difference is, a man ennobles the
woman he takes, be she who she will; and adopts her into his own rank,
be it what it will: but a woman, though ever so nobly born, debases
herself by a mean marriage, and descends from her own rank to his she
stoops to.

When the royal family of Stuart allied itself into the low family of
Hyde, (comparatively low, I mean,) did any body scruple to call the
lady, Royal Highness, and Duchess of York? And did any body think her
daughters, the late Queen Mary and Queen Anne, less royal for that?

When the broken-fortuned peer goes into the city to marry a rich
tradesman's daughter, be he duke or earl, does not his consort
immediately become ennobled by his choice? and who scruples to call