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This letter added much to the diſquietude which before began to torment poor Molly’s breaſt. She read it over twenty times, and, at laſt, having carefully ſurvey’d every part of the room, that no body was preſent, ſhe kiſſed it eagerly. However, as ſhe was perfectly modeſt, and afraid of appearing too forward, ſhe reſolved not to anſwer this firſt letter; and if ſhe met the Doctor, to behave with great coldneſs towards him.
Her mother being ill, prevented her going out that day; and the next morning ſhe received a ſecond letter from the Doctor, in terms more warm and endearing than before, and which made ſo abſolute a conqueſt over the unexperienc’d and tender heart of this poor girl, that ſhe ſuffered herſelf to be prevailed on, by the intreaties of her lover, to write an anſwer, which nevertheleſs ſhe derermin’d ſhould be ſo diſtant and cool, that the woman of the ſtricteſt virtue and modeſty in England might have no reaſon to be aſham’d of having writ it; of which letter the reader hath here an exact copy:
Sur,
“I haf recevd boath your too litters, and ſur I ham much ſurpriſe hat the loafe you priten to haf for ſo pur a garl as mee. I kan nut beleef you wul deſgrace yourſelf by marring ſutch a yf as mee, and Sur I wool nut be thee hore of the grateſt man in the kuntry. For thof mi vartu be all I haf, yit hit is a potion I ham riſſolv to kare to mi houſband, ſoe noe moor at preſant, from your umble ſavant to cummand.
The Doctor received this letter with all the ecſtaſies any lover could be inſpired with, and, as Mr. Congreve ſays in his Old Batchelor, Thought
