'Well, my dear,' says I, 'then I have but one condition more to make
with you, and that is, that as there is nobody concerned in it but you
and I, you shall not discover it to any person in the world, except
your own mother; and that in all the measures you shall take upon the
discovery, as I am equally concerned in it with you, though as innocent
as yourself, you shall do nothing in a passion, nothing to my prejudice
or to your mother's prejudice, without my knowledge and consent.' This a little amazed him, and he wrote down the words distinctly, but
read them over and over before he signed them, hesitating at them
several times, and repeating them: 'My mother's prejudice! and your
prejudice! What mysterious thing can this be?' However, at last he
signed it.
'Well, says I, 'my dear, I'll ask you no more under your hand; but as
you are to hear the most unexpected and surprising thing that perhaps
ever befell any family in the world, I beg you to promise me you will
receive it with composure and a presence of mind suitable to a man of
sense.' 'I'll do my utmost,' says he, 'upon condition you will keep me no
longer in suspense, for you terrify me with all these preliminaries.' 'Well, then,' says I, 'it is this: as I told you before in a heat, that
I was not your lawful wife, and that our children were not legal
children, so I must let you know now in calmness and in kindness, but
with affliction enough, that I am your own sister, and you my own
brother, and that we are both the children of our mother now alive, and
in the house, who is convinced of the truth of it, in a manner not to
be denied or contradicted.' I saw him turn pale and look wild; and I said, 'Now remember your
promise, and receive it with presence of mind; for who could have said
more to prepare you for it than I have done?' However, I called a
servant, and got him a little glass of rum (which is the usual dram of
that country), for he was just fainting away. When he was a little
recovered, I said to him, 'This story, you may be sure, requires a long
explanation, and therefore, have patience and compose your mind to hear
it out, and I'll make it as short as I can'; and with this, I told him
what I thought was needful of the fact, and particularly how my mother
came to discover it to me, as above. 'And now, my dear,' says I, 'you
will see reason for my capitulations, and that I neither have been the
cause of this matter, nor could be so, and that I could know nothing of
it before now.' 'I am fully satisfied of that,' says he, 'but 'tis a dreadful surprise
to me; however, I know a remedy for it all, and a remedy that shall put
an end to your difficulties, without your going to England.' 'That
would be strange,' said I, 'as all the rest.' 'No, no,' says he, 'I'll
make it easy; there's nobody in the way of it but myself.' He looked a
little disordered when he said this, but I did not apprehend anything
from it at that time, believing, as it used to be said, that they who
do those things never talk of them, or that they who talk of such
things never do them.