that if he intended to drag me, as I might call it, into the world again, perhaps it might be agreeable to him; but, besides that, I could not judge of the thing, because I did not understand how either of them was to be done.
He told me that money purchased titles of honour in almost all parts of the world, though money could not give principles of honour, they must come by birth and blood; that, however, titles sometimes assist to elevate the soul and to infuse generous principles into the mind, and especially where there was a good foundation laid in the persons; that he hoped we should neither of us misbehave if we came to it; and that, as we knew how to wear a title without undue elevations, so it might sit as well upon us as on another; that as to England, he had nothing to do but to get an act of naturalisation in his favour, and he knew where to purchase a patent for baronet—that is to say, to have the honour and title transferred to him; but, if I intended to go abroad with him, he had a nephew, the son of his eldest brother, who had the title of count, with the estate annexed, which was but small, and that he had frequently offered to make it over to him for a thousand pistoles, which was not a great deal of money, and considering it was in the family already, he would, upon my being willing, purchase it immediately.
I told him I liked the last best, but then I would not let him buy it unless he would let me pay the thousand pistoles. 'No, no', says he, 'I refused a thousand pistoles that I had more right to have accepted than that, and you shall not be at so much expense now.' 'Yes', says I, 'you did refuse it, and perhaps repented it afterwards.' 'I never complained', said he. 'But I did', says I; 'and often repented it for you.' 'I do not understand you', says he. 'Why', said I, 'I repented that I suffered you to refuse it.' 'Well, well', said he, 'we may talk of that hereafter, when you shall resolve which part of the world you will make your settled residence in.' Here he talked very handsomely to me, and for a good while together; how it had been his lot to live all his days out of his native country, and to be often shifting and changing the situation of his affairs; and that I myself had not always had a fixed abode, but that now, as neither of us was very young, he fancied I would be for taking up our abode, where, if possible, we might remove no more; that, as to his part, he was of that opinion entirely, only with this exception, that the choice of the place should be mine, for that all places in the world were alike to him, only with this single addition, namely, that I was with him.
I heard him with a great deal of pleasure, as well for his being willing to give me the choice as for that I resolved to live abroad, for the reason I have mentioned already, namely, lest I should at any time be known in England, and all that story of Roxana and the balls should come out; as also I was not a little tickled with the satisfaction of being still a countess, though I could not be a princess.
I told Amy all this story, for she was still my privy councillor; but when I asked her opinion, she made me laugh heartily. 'Now, which of the two shall I take, Amy?' said I. 'Shall I be a lady—that is, a baronet's lady in England, or a countess in Holland?' The ready-witted jade, that knew the pride of my temper too, almost as well as I did myself, answered (without the least hesitation) 'Both, madam. Which of them?' says she (repeating the words). 'Why not both of them? and then you will be really a princess; fur, sure, to be a lady in English and
