. "No, I'd starve first."

"I hope not, madam, I hope you would be wiser; I'm sure if he will set
you up, as he talks of, you ought to deny him nothing; and you will
starve if you do not consent, that's certain."

"What! consent to lie with him for bread? Amy," said I, "how can you
talk so!"

"Nay, madam," says Amy, "I don't think you would for anything else; it
would not be lawful for anything else, but for bread, madam; why, nobody
can starve, there's no bearing that, I'm sure."

"Ay," says I, "but if he would give me an estate to live on, he should
not lie with me, I assure you."

"Why, look you, madam; if he would but give you enough to live easy
upon, he should lie with me for it with all my heart."

"That's a token, Amy, of inimitable kindness to me," said I, "and I know
how to value it; but there's more friendship than honesty in it, Amy."

"Oh, madam," says Amy, "I'd do anything to get you out of this sad
condition; as to honesty, I think honesty is out of the question when
starving is the case. Are not we almost starved to death?"

"I am indeed," said I, "and thou art for my sake; but to be a whore,
Amy!" and there I stopped.

"Dear madam," says Amy, "if I will starve for your sake, I will be a
whore or anything for your sake; why, I would die for you if I were put
to it."

"Why, that's an excess of affection, Amy," said I, "I never met with
before; I wish I may be ever in condition to make you some returns
suitable. But, however, Amy, you shall not be a whore to him, to oblige
him to be kind to me; no, Amy, nor I won't be a whore to him, if he
would give me much more than he is able to give me or do for me."

"Why, madam," says Amy, "I don't say I will go and ask him; but I say,
if he should promise to do so and so for you, and the condition was such
that he would not serve you unless I would let him lie with me, he
should lie with me as often as he would, rather than you should not have
his assistance. But this is but talk, madam; I don't see any need of
such discourse, and you are of opinion that there will be no need of
it."

"Indeed so I am, Amy; but," said I, "if there was, I tell you again, I'd
die before I would consent, or before you should consent for my sake."

Hitherto I had not only preserved the virtue itself, but the virtuous
inclination and resolution; and had I kept myself there I had been
happy, though I had perished of mere hunger; for, without question, a
woman ought rather t