upon his supposing the
Quaker was behind him, whereas she, as I said, understood things too
well, and had retired as if she had vanished, that we might have full
freedom; for, as she said afterwards, she supposed we had seen one
another before, though it might have been a great while ago.

Whatever stiffness I had put on my behaviour to him, I was surprised in
my mind, and angry at his, and began to wonder what kind of a
ceremonious meeting it was to be. However, after he perceived the woman
was gone he made a kind of a hesitation, looking a little round him.
"Indeed," said he, "I thought the gentlewoman was not withdrawn;" and
with that he took me in his arms and kissed me three or four times; but
I, that was prejudiced to the last degree with the coldness of his first
salutes, when I did not know the cause of it, could not be thoroughly
cleared of the prejudice though I did know the cause, and thought that
even his return, and taking me in his arms, did not seem to have the
same ardour with which he used to receive me, and this made me behave to
him awkwardly, and I know not how for a good while; but this by the way.

He began with a kind of an ecstasy upon the subject of his finding me
out; how it was possible that he should have been four years in England,
and had used all the ways imaginable, and could never so much as have
the least intimation of me, or of any one like me; and that it was now
above two years that he had despaired of it, and had given over all
inquiry; and that now he should chop upon me, as it were, unlooked and
unsought for.

I could easily have accounted for his not finding me if I had but set
down the detail of my real retirement; but I gave it a new, and indeed a
truly hypocritical turn. I told him that any one that knew the manner
of life I led might account for his not finding me; that the retreat I
had taken up would have rendered it a hundred thousand to one odds that
he ever found me at all; that, as I had abandoned all conversation,
taken up another name, lived remote from London, and had not preserved
one acquaintance in it, it was no wonder he had not met with me; that
even my dress would let him see that I did not desire to be known by
anybody.

Then he asked if I had not received some letters from him. I told him
no, he had not thought fit to give me the civility of an answer to the
last I wrote to him, and he could not suppose I should expect a return
after a silence in a case