Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/102

92 brought me for anſwer, that they had no ſuch ſum at their diſpoſal. I obſerved that it might eaſily be obtained, by a mortgage on their houſe. The reply to this was, after a few days interval, that they did not approve of the match; that they had conſulted Bradford; and found that the buſineſs of a printer was not lucrative; that my letters would ſoon be worn out, and muſt be ſupplied by new ones; that Keimer and Harry had failed, and that, probably, I ſhould do ſo too. Accordingly they forbade me the houſe, and the young lady was confined. I know not if they had really changed their minds, or if it was merely an artifice, ſuppoſing our affections to be too far engaged for us to deſiſt, and that we ſhould contrive to marry ſecretly, which would leave them at liberty to give or not as they pleaſed. But, ſuſpecting this motive, I never went again to their houſe. Some time after Mrs. Godfrey informed me that they were very favourably diſpoſed towards me, and wiſhed me to renew the acquaintance; but I declared a firm reſolution never to have any thing more to do with the family. The Godfreys expreſſed ſome reſentment at this; and as we could no longer agree, they changed their reſidence, leaving me in poſſeſſion of the whole houſe. I then reſolved to take no more lodgers. This affair having turned my thoughts to marriage, I looked around me, and made overtures of alliance in other quarters; but I ſoon found that the profeſſion of a printer being generally looked upon as a poor trade, I could expect no money with a wife, at leaſt if I wiſhed her to poſſeſs any other charm. Meanwhile that paſſion of youth, ſo difficult to govern, had often drawn me into intrigues with deſpicable women who fell in my way; which were not unaccompanied