Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/188

 he was near fifty, yet was his person very agreeable, and he had such an eternal fund of entertainment in his conversation, that all the world coveted his company. It was no wonder Livia was pleased with his addresses, and withstood them no longer than was just necessary to keep up the ceremonies appointed by custom for women in such cases, when they were married to the entire satisfaction of all parties. Valentine paid his mother the respect due to her; and, for my part, I really liked Livia from inclination: but, as I found she was the object which gave the greatest pleasure to the man in the world I most loved, and to whom I owed all the duty I was capable of paying, I thought I could never do enough to oblige her. My father grew every day fonder and fonder of his wife; and now, sir, I believe you will think the happiness of this little family could admit of no addition. "I thought so at that time, and if the opinion I then had of Livia could have been supported with any colour of reason, I should never have known a wish beyond what I then enjoyed. But, perhaps, sir, if you have not had a great deal of experience in the world, you may be yet to learn, that there are women, who, in order to prove their love to their husbands, take an utter aversion to everything that belongs to them. This was my unhappy case: the woman whom I thought my best friend, from the moment she became my mother, turned my enemy, only because my father was fond of me; for I am certain she never had any other reason for a conduct like her's. "The first step she took, was to assume an air of forced civility, instead of that familiarity, which, from the beginning of our short acquaintance, we had been used to treat each other with, and throw me at a distance; for, as Shakespeare says, 'When