To this the women made no other answer, than that
it was a pity it had not come from his heart, instead
of his face; all declaring, that, if their husbands
should lift their hands against them, they would have
their hearts’ bloods out of their bodies.
After much admonition for what was past, and much
good advice to Mr Partridge for his future behaviour,
the company at length departed, and left the husband
and wife to a personal conference together, in which
Mr Partridge soon learned the cause of all his sufferings.
Containing much matter to exercise the judgment and
reflection of the reader.
I believe it is a true observation, that few secrets
are divulged to one person only; but certainly, it
would be next to a miracle that a fact of this kind
should be known to a whole parish, and not transpire
any farther.
And, indeed, a very few days had past, before the
country, to use a common phrase, rung of the schoolmaster
of Little Baddington; who was said to have beaten
his wife in the most cruel manner. Nay, in some
places it was reported he had murdered her; in others,
that he had broke her arms; in others, her legs:
in short, there was scarce an injury which can be
done to a human creature, but what Mrs Partridge was
somewhere or other affirmed to have received from her
husband.
The cause of this quarrel was likewise variously reported;
for as some people said that Mrs Partridge had caught
her husband in bed with his maid, so many other reasons,
of a very different kind, went abroad. Nay, some
transferred the guilt to the wife, and the jealousy
to the husband.
Mrs Wilkins had long ago heard of this quarrel; but,
as a different cause from the true one had reached
her ears, she thought proper to conceal it; and the
rather, perhaps, as the blame was universally laid
on Mr Partridge; and his wife, when she was servant
to Mr Allworthy, had in something offended Mrs Wilkins,
who was not of a very forgiving temper.
But Mrs Wilkins, whose eyes could see objects at a
distance, and who could very well look forward a few
years into futurity, had perceived a strong likelihood
of Captain Blifil’s being hereafter her master;
and as she plainly discerned that the captain bore
no great goodwill to the little foundling, she fancied
it would be rendering him an agreeable service, if
she could make any discoveries that might lessen the
affection which Mr Allworthy seemed to have contracted
for this child, and which gave visible uneasiness
to the captain, who could not entirely conceal it
even before Allworthy himself; though his wife, who
acted her part much better in public, frequently recommended
to him her own example, of conniving at the folly
of her brother, which, she said, she at least as well
perceived, and as much resented, as any other possibly
could.
Mrs Wilkins having therefore, by accident, gotten
a true scent of the above story,—though
long after it had happened, failed not to satisfy
herself thoroughly of all the particulars; and then
acquainted the captain, that she had at last discovered
the true father of the little bastard, which she was
sorry, she said, to see her master lose his reputation
in the country, by taking so much notice of.
