she had another reason why it was not very possible to
be true. "And that is," says she, "thy age is in the way; for thou
acknowledgest that thou art four-and twenty years old, and that thou
wast the youngest of three of thy mother's children; so that, by thy
account, thy mother must be extremely young, or this lady cannot be thy
mother; for thou seest," says she, "and any one may see, she is but a
young woman now, and cannot be supposed to be above forty years old, if
she is so much; and is now big with child at her going into the country;
so that I cannot give any credit to thy notion of her being thy mother;
and if I might counsel thee, it should be to give over that thought, as
an improbable story that does but serve to disorder thee, and disturb
thy head; for," added she, "I perceive thou art much disturbed indeed."

But this was all nothing; she could be satisfied with nothing but seeing
me; but the Quaker defended herself very well, and insisted on it that
she could not give her any account of me; and finding her still
importunate, she affected at last being a little disgusted that she
should not believe her, and added, that indeed, if she had known where I
was gone, she would not have given any one an account of it, unless I
had given her orders to do so. "But seeing she has not acquainted me,"
says she, "where she has gone, 'tis an intimation to me she was not
desirous it should be publicly known;" and with this she rose up, which
was as plain a desiring her to rise up too and begone as could be
expressed, except the downright showing her the door.

Well, the girl rejected all this, and told her she could not indeed
expect that she (the Quaker) should be affected with the story she had
told her, however moving, or that she should take any pity on her. That
it was her misfortune, that when she was at the house before, and in the
room with me, she did not beg to speak a word with me in private, or
throw herself upon the floor at my feet, and claim what the affection of
a mother would have done for her; but since she had slipped her
opportunity, she would wait for another; that she found by her (the
Quaker's) talk, that she had not quite left her lodgings, but was gone
into the country, she supposed for the air; and she was resolved she
would take so much knight-errantry upon her, that she would visit all
the airing-places in the nation, and even all the kingdom over, ay, and
Holland too, but she would find me; fo