In this manner, then, while his father, blessed with a wealthy wife,
was leading, in a fine house, the life of a galley-slave; while his
mother, married to Mr. Hayes, and made an honest women of, as the
saying is, was passing her time respectably in Warwickshire, Mr.
Thomas Billings was inhabiting the same county, not cared for by
either of them; but ordained by Fate to join them one day, and have
a mighty influence upon the fortunes of both. For, as it has often
happened to the traveller in the York or the Exeter coach to fall
snugly asleep in his corner, and on awaking suddenly to find himself
sixty or seventy miles from the place where Somnus first visited
him: as, we say, although you sit still, Time, poor wretch, keeps
perpetually running on, and so must run day and night, with never a
pause or a halt of five minutes to get a drink, until his dying day;
let the reader imagine that since he left Mrs. Hayes and all the
other worthy personages of this history, in the last chapter, seven
years have sped away; during which, all our heroes and heroines have
been accomplishing their destinies.
Seven years of country carpentering, or rather trading, on the part
of a husband, of ceaseless scolding, violence, and discontent on the
part of a wife, are not pleasant to describe: so we shall omit
altogether any account of the early married life of Mr.
Pages:
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174