"No, Madam: but I have given it under my hand."
"Under your hand!—Ah! Polly, it is well if you have not given it under your heart too. But what foolishness is this!—What consideration has he made you?"—"He has given it under his hand, that he will always love me; and when his lordship's father dies, he will own me."
"What foolishness is this on both sides!—But are you willing to be released from this bargain?"
"Indeed I am. Madam, and I told him so yesterday. But he says he will sue me, and ruin me, if I don't stand to it."
"You are ruined if you do!—And I wish—But tell me, Polly, are you not ruined as it is?"
"Indeed I am not, Madam."
"I doubt, then, you were upon the brink of it, had not this providential indisposition kept me at home.—You met, I suppose, to conclude your shocking bargain.—O poor unhappy girl!—But let me see what he has given under his hand!"
"He has 'em both, Madam, to be drawn up fair, and in a strong hand, that shall be like a record."
Could I have thought, Miss, that a girl of nineteen could be so ignorant in a point so important, when in every thing else she has shewn no instances like this stupid folly?
"Has he given you money?"