Grandison,
still ringing in their ears.
About five months after this unholy marriage Mrs. Hazelton called on
me, and disclosed to me the whole state of the case, informing me
(of which there was little necessity) that her confinement was close
at hand, and soliciting my aid to get her out of the difficulty. My
first impulse was to call on her husband and acquaint him with the
facts: but, remembering that he occupied a prominent position, not
only in the mercantile, but also in the religious community; moreover,
that a disclosure would in no way mend the matter, and would be a
lasting disgrace not only, to the two culprits, but also to Messrs.
Sedley and Hazelton I listened calmly to her plans for getting out
of the difficulty. She suggested pretending a miscarriage, wished me
to invite her to my house, where she would become ill, and unable to
leave till after her child was born. The child was then to be
conveyed to the nunnery, her husband being deluded into the belief
that she had miscarried.
Now, in the ordinary course of business, I would have been perfectly
justified in attending her without troubling my head about her
antecedents; indeed, had she been unmarried I would possibly have
given my services, but in this case the lady was married, and the
child lawfully belonged to her husband, _whose heir it was_, although
actually belonging to another man.
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