Page:The history of Tom Jones (1749 Volume 2).pdf/165

 This Conideration gave him no little Uneaines, till Betty, the elder Siter, was o kind ome time afterwards entirely to cure him by a Hint, that one Will Barnes, and not himelf, had been the firt Seducer of Molly; and that the little Child, which he had hitherto o certainly concluded to be his own, might very probably have an equal Title at leat, to claim Barnes for its Father.

Jones eagerly purued this Scent when he had firt received it; and in a very hort Time was ufficiently aured that the Girl had told him Truth, not only by the Confeion of the Fellow, but, at lat, by that of Molly herelf.

This Will Barnes was a Country Gallant, and had acquired as many Trophies of this Kind as any Enign or Attorney’s Clerk in the Kingdom. He had, indeed, reduced everal Women to a State of utter Profligacy, had broken the Hearts of ome, and had the Honour of occaioning the violent Death of one poor Girl, who had either drowned herelf, or, what was rather more probably, had been drowned by him.