Moll, by the advice of Don Sanchez, sends for Simon, and
telling him she is satisfied with the account I have given of his
stewardship, offers him the further control of her affairs, subject at
all times to her decision on any question concerning her convenience,
and reserving to herself the sole government of her household, the
ordering of her home, lands, etc. And Simon grasping eagerly at this
proposal, she then gives him the promise of one thousand pounds for his
past services, and doubles the wages due to him under his contract with
Sir R. Godwin.

"Give me what it may please thee to bestow that way," cries he. "All
shall be laid out to enrich this property. I have no other use for
money, no other worldly end in life but that."

And when he saw me next he was most slavish in his thanks for my good
offices, vowing I should be paid my claim by Michaelmas, if it were in
the power of man to raise so vast a sum in such short space. Surely,
thinks I, there was never a more strange, original creature than this,
yet it do seem to me that there is no man but his passion must appear a
madness to others.

I must speak now of Moll, her admirable carriage and sober conduct in
these new circumstances, which would have turned the heads of most
others. Never once to my knowledge did she lose her self-possession, on
the most trying occasion, and this was due, not alone to her own shrewd
wit and understanding, but to the subtle intelligence of Don Sanchez,
who in the character of an old and trusty friend was ever by her side,
watchful of her interest (and his own), ready at any moment to drop in
her ear a quiet word of warning or counsel. By his advice she had taken
into her service a most commendable, proper old gentlewoman, one Mrs.
Margery Butterby, who, as being the widow of a country parson, was very
orderly in all things, and particularly nice in the proprieties. This
notable good soul was of a cheery, chatty disposition, of very pleasing
manners, and a genteel appearance, and so, though holding but the part
of housekeeper, she served as an agreeable companion and a respectable
guardian, whose mere presence in the house silenced any question that
might have arisen from the fact of three men living under the same roof
with the young and beautiful mistress of Hurst Court. Moreover, she
served us as a very useful kind of mouthpiece; for all those marvellous
stories of her life in Barbary, of the pirates we had encountered in
r