bts paid, and with between two and
three thousand pounds in his pocket; and being now obliged to remove
from the brewhouse, we took a house at ----, a village about two miles
out of town; and happy I thought myself, all things considered, that I
was got off clear, upon so good terms; and had my handsome fellow had
but one capful of wit, I had been still well enough.

I proposed to him either to buy some place with the money, or with part
of it, and offered to join my part to it, which was then in being, and
might have been secured; so we might have lived tolerably at least
during his life. But as it is the part of a fool to be void of counsel,
so he neglected it, lived on as he did before, kept his horses and men,
rid every day out to the forest a-hunting, and nothing was done all this
while; but the money decreased apace, and I thought I saw my ruin
hastening on without any possible way to prevent it.

I was not wanting with all that persuasions and entreaties could
perform, but it was all fruitless; representing to him how fast our
money wasted, and what would be our condition when it was gone, made no
impression on him; but like one stupid, he went on, not valuing all that
tears and lamentations could be supposed to do; nor did he abate his
figure or equipage, his horses or servants, even to the last, till he
had not a hundred pounds left in the whole world.

It was not above three years that all the ready money was thus spending
off; yet he spent it, as I may say, foolishly too, for he kept no
valuable company neither, but generally with huntsmen and
horse-coursers, and men meaner than himself, which is another
consequence of a man's being a fool; such can never take delight in men
more wise and capable than themselves, and that makes them converse
with scoundrels, drink, belch with porters, and keep company always
below themselves.

This was my wretched condition, when one morning my husband told me he
was sensible he was come to a miserable condition, and he would go and
seek his fortune somewhere or other. He had said something to that
purpose several times before that, upon my pressing him to consider his
circumstances, and the circumstances of his family, before it should be
too late; but as I found he had no meaning in anything of that kind, as,
indeed, he had not much in anything he ever said, so I thought they were
but words of course now. When he had said he would be gone, I used to
wish secretly, and e