Moll Flanders | Page 7

service nor do housework'; and therefore I insisted that she was a
gentlewoman, and I would be such a gentlewoman as that.
The ladies were told all this again, to be sure, and they made themselves merry with it,
and every now and then the young ladies, Mr. Mayor's daughters, would come and see
me, and ask where the little gentlewoman was, which made me not a little proud of
myself.
This held a great while, and I was often visited by these young ladies, and sometimes
they brought others with them; so that I was known by it almost all over the town.
I was now about ten years old, and began to look a little womanish, for I was mighty
grave and humble, very mannerly, and as I had often heard the ladies say I was pretty,
and would be a very handsome woman, so you may be sure that hearing them say so
made me not a little proud. However, that pride had no ill effect upon me yet; only, as
they often gave me money, and I gave it to my old nurse, she, honest woman, was so just
to me as to lay it all out again for me, and gave me head-dresses, and linen, and gloves,
and ribbons, and I went very neat, and always clean; for that I would do, and if I had rags
on, I would always be clean, or else I would dabble them in water myself; but, I say, my
good nurse, when I had money given me, very honestly laid it out for me, and would
always tell the ladies this or that was bought with their money; and this made them
oftentimes give me more, till at last I was indeed called upon by the magistrates, as I

understood it, to go out to service; but then I was come to be so good a workwoman
myself, and the ladies were so kind to me, that it was plain I could maintain myself--that
is to say, I could earn as much for my nurse as she was able by it to keep me--so she told
them that if they would give her leave, she would keep the gentlewoman, as she called
me, to be her assistant and teach the children, which I was very well able to do; for I was
very nimble at my work, and had a good hand with my needle, though I was yet very
young.
But the kindness of the ladies of the town did not end here, for when they came to
understand that I was no more maintained by the public allowance as before, they gave
me money oftener than formerly; and as I grew up they brought me work to do for them,
such as linen to make, and laces to mend, and heads to dress up, and not only paid me for
doing them, but even taught me how to do them; so that now I was a gentlewoman indeed,
as I understood that word, I not only found myself clothes and paid my nurse for my
keeping, but got money in my pocket too beforehand.
The ladies also gave me clothes frequently of their own or their children's; some
stockings, some petticoats, some gowns, some one thing, some another, and these my old
woman managed for me like a mere mother, and kept them for me, obliged me to mend
them, and turn them and twist them to the best advantage, for she was a rare housewife.
At last one of the ladies took so much fancy to me that she would have me home to her
house, for a month, she said, to be among her daughters.
Now, though this was exceeding kind in her, yet, as my old good woman said to her,
unless she resolved to keep me for good and all, she would do the little gentlewoman
more harm than good. 'Well,' says the lady, 'that's true; and therefore I'll only take her
home for a week, then, that I may see how my daughters and she agree together, and how
I like her temper, and then I'll tell you more; and in the meantime, if anybody comes to
see her as they used to do, you may only tell them you have sent her out to my house.'
This was prudently managed enough, and I went to the lady's house; but I was so pleased
there with the young ladies, and they so pleased with me, that I had enough to do to come
away, and they were as unwilling to part with me.
However, I did come away, and lived almost a year more with my honest old woman, and
began now to be very helpful to her; for I was almost