Page:Modern Literature Volume 3 (1804).djvu/246

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reverences; being enabled to live freely and expensively by the liberality of a rich quaker's widow: her the spirit moved to yearn unto him as one that she wished to make her lord and master, as soon as three months of mourning should be expired; and, during the remaining two and a half, she admitted him to all the privileges of a husband, except the name. O'Rourke would have willingly turned quaker, or any thing else, for the lady's fortune; but, afraid that his former marriage might be discovered, before the time stipulated by Mrs. Stiffrump, he bethought himself of chousing her of her property without any legal contract; and, turning priest to enjoy the spoils among the fair penitents who, he presumed, would flock to his confessional, having been always eminent for his influence among the female votaries of any religion that he happened