make  it  the  subject  of  public  and  personal  reproof,
it  was  whispered  that  the  scandal  was  not  limited  to
idle  maidens,  but  that  certain  of  the  deacons'  wives
were  in  it,  and  it  was  deemed  more  prudent  to  adopt
gentle  and  private  measures  to  eradicate  the  evd ;
an  evil  so  deeply  felt  as  to  be  bewailed  by  the  mer-
ciless "  cobbler"  above  quoted  in  the  following  af-
fecting terms  :  "  Methinks  it  would  break  the  hearts
of  Englishmen  to  see  so  many  goodly  English  wom-
en imprisoned  in  French  cages,  peeping  out  of  their
hood-holes  for  some  men  of  mercy  to  help  them  with
a  little  wit,  and  nobody  relieves  them.  We  have
about  five  or  six  of  them  in  our  colony.  If  I  see
any  of  them  accidentally,  I  cannot  cleanse  my  phan-
sie  of  them  for  a  month  after."

It  would  seem  marvellous  that  a  woman  like  Mrs.
Grafton,  apparently  engrossed  with  the  world,  living
on  the  foam  and  froth  of  life,  should  become  a  vol-
untary exile  to  the  colonies  ;  but,  to  do  her  justice,
she  was  kind-hearted  and  affectionate,  susceptible  of
strong  and  controlling  attachment,  and  the  infant
children  of  a  brother  on  whom  she  had  doted  out-
weighed her  love  of  frivolous  pleasures  and  personal
indulgence.
She  certainly  believed  that  the  resolution  of  her
sister  to  go  to  the  wilderness  had  no  parallel  in  the
history  of  human  folly  and  madness ;  but,  the  reso-
lution once  taken,  and,  as  she  perceived,  unconquer-
able, she  made  her  own  destiny  conformable,  not
without  some  restiffness,  but  without  serious  repi-
lAg.    It  was  an  unexpected  shock  to  her  to  be  com-


HOPE    LESLIE.  37

pelled  to  leave  Boston  for  a  condition  of  life  not  only
more  rude  and  inconvenient,  but  really  dangerous.
