We came, however, to a gentleman's seat, where was a numerous family, a
large park, extraordinary company indeed, and where she was called
cousin. I told her if she had resolved to bring me into such company
as this, she should have let me have prepared myself, and have
furnished myself with better clothes. The ladies took notice of that,
and told me very genteelly they did not value people in their country
so much by their clothes as they did in London; that their cousin had
fully informed them of my quality, and that I did not want clothes to
set me off; in short, they entertained me, not like what I was, but
like what they thought I had been, namely, a widow lady of a great
fortune.
The first discovery I made here was, that the family were all Roman
Catholics, and the cousin too, whom I called my friend; however, I must
say that nobody in the world could behave better to me, and I had all
the civility shown me that I could have had if I had been of their
opinion. The truth is, I had not so much principle of any kind as to
be nice in point of religion, and I presently learned to speak
favourably of the Romish Church; particularly, I told them I saw little
but the prejudice of education in all the difference that were among
Christians about religion, and if it had so happened that my father had
been a Roman Catholic, I doubted not but I should have been as well
pleased with their religion as my own.
This obliged them in the highest degree, and as I was besieged day and
night with good company and pleasant discourse, so I had two or three
old ladies that lay at me upon the subject of religion too. I was so
complaisant, that though I would not completely engage, yet I made no
scruple to be present at their mass, and to conform to all their
gestures as they showed me the pattern, but I would not come too cheap;
so that I only in the main encouraged them to expect that I would turn
Roman Catholic, if I was instructed in the Catholic doctrine as they
called it, and so the matter rested.
I stayed here about six weeks; and then my conductor led me back to a
country village, about six miles from Liverpool, where her brother (as
she called him) came to visit me in his own chariot, and in a very good
figure, with two footmen in a good livery; and the next thing was to
make love to me. As it had happened to me, one would think I could not
have been cheated, and indeed I thought so myself, having a safe card
at home, which I resolved not to quit unless I could mend myself very
much. However, in all appearance this brother was a match worth my
listening to, and the least his estate was valued at was #1000 a year,
but the sister said it was worth #1500 a year, and lay most of it in
Ireland.