Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/274

 But being a Man of Breeding, as I said above, he took it quietly, and was easy; gave her all manner of Liberties, made no reply, gave her not one ill Word; till, at length, being provoked beyond all possible Degrees of human Patience, he resolved to make her a terrible Return; and, indeed, he was sorely provoked, that he was. He first begg'd of her to be easy and quiet, and to use him better, and manage her self better. She provoked him so much with her vile Reproaches and Reflections, upon his being a Beggar, as she call'd it, and making a Figure with her Money, that one Day it broke out into a Flame that could not be quenched. But it was his particular good Fortune to have several of her own Friends to be Witnesses of the Provocation, and so far to justify him, as, at least, to witness in his Behalf, that her Language was unsufferable.

is it to be wondered at, that when he did break out, he did it with such a Fury that conquered all her Resistance, and that put a full check to her Clamour; for it touch'd her in the most sensible Part, namely, her Character as to Modesty.

gave her this, even the very first time, in a full broad Side, as the Sailors call it, and when, as I say, her own Relations were present. But he did not do it, till she had long and very often provoked him, by reproaching him with her Fortune, and his want of a Fortune, and that with so much Bitterness, that even some of those Relations of her's begg'd her to forbear, and have done with it; and he, perceiving that Relation inclined to speak, withdrew, to give her an Opportunity, which she improved, and earnestly entreated her to for-