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would have exchanged the Doctor for the greateſt and richeſt match in the world.
And had not her affections been fixed in this ſtrong manner, it is poſſible that an accident which happened the very next night might have altered her mind: for being at another dancing with her lover, a quarrel aroſe between the Doctor and a man there preſent, upon which the mother ſeizing the former violently by the collar, tore open her waſtecoat, and rent her ſhirt, ſo that all her breaſt was diſcovered, which, tho’ beyond expreſſion beautiful in a woman, were of ſo different a kind from the boſom of a man, that the married women there ſet up a great titter; and tho’ it did not bring the Doctor’s ſex into an abſolute ſuſpicion, yet cauſed ſome whiſpers, which perhaps might have ſpoiled the match with a leſs innocent and leſs enamoured virgin.
It had however no ſuch effect on poor Molly. As her fond heart was free from any deceit, ſo was it entirely free from ſuſpicion; and accordingly, at the fixed time ſhe met the Doctor, and their nuptials were celebrated in the uſual form.
The mother was extremely pleaſed at this preferment (as ſhe thought it) of her daughter. The joy of it did indeed contribute to reſtore her perfectly to health, and nothing but mirth and happineſs appeared in the faces of the whole family.
The new married couple not only continued, but greatly increaſed the fondneſs which they had conceived for each other, and poor Molly, from ſome ſtories ſhe told among her acquaintance, the other young married women of the town, was received as a great fibber, and was at laſt univerſally laughed at as ſuch among them all.
Three months paſt in this manner, when the Doctor was ſent for to Glaſtonbury to a patient (for
the
