The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith

my resentment. 'Sir,' cried I,
'the family which you now condescend to favour with your company,
has been bred with as nice a sense of honour as you. Any attempts
to injure that, may be attended with very dangerous consequences.
Honour, Sir, is our only possession at present, and of that last
treasure we must be particularly careful.'—I was soon sorry for the
warmth with which I had spoken this, when the young gentleman,
grasping my hand, swore he commended my spirit, though he
disapproved my suspicions. 'As to your present hint,' continued he,
'I protest nothing was farther from my heart than such a thought.
No, by all that's tempting, the virtue that will stand a regular
siege was never to my taste; for all my amours are carried by a
coup de main.'
    The two ladies, who affected to be ignorant of the rest, seemed
highly displeased with this last stroke of freedom, and began a
very discreet and serious dialogue upon virtue: in this my wife,
the chaplain, and I, soon joined; and the 'Squire himself was at
last brought to confess a sense of sorrow for his former excesses.
We talked of the pleasures of temperance, and of the sun-shine in
the mind unpolluted with guilt. I was so well pleased, that my
little ones were kept up beyond the usual time to be edified by so
much good conversation. Mr Thornhill even went beyond me, and
demanded if I had any objection to giving prayers. I joyfully
embraced the proposal, and in this manner the night was passed in a
most comfortable way, till at last the company began to think of
returning. The ladies seemed very unwilling to part with my
daughters; for whom they had conceived a particular affection, and
joined in a request to have the pleasure of their company home. The
'Squire seconded the proposal, and my wife added her entreaties:
the girls too looked upon me as if they wished to go. In this
perplexity I made two or three excuses, which my daughters as
readily removed; so that at last I was obliged to give a peremptory
refusal; for which we had nothing but sullen looks and short
answers the whole day ensuing.

CHAPTER 10
    The family endeavours to cope with their betters. The miseries
of the poor when they attempt to appear above their
circumstances
    I now began to find that all my long and painful lectures upon
temperance, simplicity, and contentment, were entirely disregarded.
The distinctions lately paid us by our betters awaked that pride
which I had laid asleep, but not removed. Our windows again, as
formerly, were filled with washes for the neck and face. The sun
was dreaded as an enemy to the skin without doors, and the fire as
a spoiler of the complexion within. My wife observed, that rising
too early would hurt her daughters' eyes, that working after dinner
would redden their noses, and she convinced me that the hands never
looked so white as when they did nothing. Instead therefore of
finishing George's shirts, we now had them new modelling their old
gauzes, or flourishing upon catgut. The poor Miss Flamboroughs,
their former gay companions, were cast off as mean acquaintance,
and the whole conversation ran upon high life and high lived
company, with pictures, taste, Shakespear, and the musical
glasses.
    But we could have borne all this, had not a fortune-telling
gypsey come to raise us into perfect sublimity. The tawny sybil no
sooner appeared, than my girls came running to me for a shilling a
piece to cross her hand with silver. To say the truth, I was tired
of being always wise, and could not help gratifying their request,
because I loved to see them happy. I gave each of them a shilling;
though, for the honour of the family, it must be observed, that
they never went without money themselves, as my wife always
generously let them have a guinea each, to keep in their pockets;
but with strict injunctions never to change it. After they had been
closetted up with the fortune-teller for some time, I knew by their
looks, upon their returning, that they had been promised