She was as intimate with the young farmer as with him,
and was in his company every day.
Mary Wells admitted that Drake was courting her, but said he was a
civil, respectful young man, who desired to make her his wife. "You
have lost me that," said she, bursting into tears; "and so, for God's
sake, show yourself a man for once, and see me through my trouble."
The egotist disbelieved, or affected not to believe her, and said,
"When there are two it is always the gentleman you girls deceive. But
you can't make a fool of me, Mrs. Drake. Marry the farmer, and I'll
give you a wedding present; that is all I can do for any other man's
sweetheart. I have got my own family to provide for, and it is all I
can contrive to make both ends meet."
He was cold and inflexible to her prayers. Then she tried threats. He
laughed at them. Said he, "The time is gone by for that: if you wanted
to sue me for breach of promise, you should have done it at once; not
waited eighteen months and taken another sweetheart first. Come, come;
you played your little game. You made me come here week after week and
bleed a sovereign. A woman that loved a man would never have been so
hard on him as you were on me. I grinned and bore it; but when you ask
me to own another man's child, a man of your own sort that you are in
love with--you hate me--that is a little too much: no, Mrs.
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