Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected Volume III Part 14

LADY AMARANTHE.

Stay; you are not then the rude uncivil person I was told of?

d.i.c.k.

I hopes I knows better than to do an uncivil thing by a lady.

[_Bows and retreats towards the door._

LADY AMARANTHE.

Stay, sir--a--a--one word.

d.i.c.k.

Oh, as many as you please, ma'am; I'm in no hurry.

LADY AMARANTHE--(_graciously._)

Are you married?

d.i.c.k--(_rubbing his hands with glee._)

Yes, ma'am, I be; and to as tight a bit of a wife as any in the parish.

JUSTINE.

Ah! il parait que ce monsieur d.i.c.k aime sa femme! Est-il amusant!

LADY AMARANTHE.

You love her then?

d.i.c.k.

Oh, then I do! I love her with all my heart! who could help it?

LADY AMARANTHE.

Indeed! and how do you live?

d.i.c.k.

Why, bless you, ma'am, sometimes well, sometimes ill, according as I have luck and work. When we can get a bit of dinner, we eat it, and when we can't, why, we go without: or, may be, a kind neighbour helps us.

LADY AMARANTHE.

Poor creatures!

d.i.c.k.

Oh, not so poor neither, my lady; many folks is worser off. I'm always merry, night and day; and my Meg is the good temperedst, best wife in the world. We've never had nothing from the parish, and never will, please G.o.d, while I have health and hands.

LADY AMARANTHE.

And you are happy?

d.i.c.k.

As happy as the day is long.

LADY AMARANTHE--(_aside._)

This is a lesson to me. Eh bien, Justine! voila donc notre sauvage!

JUSTINE.

Il est gentil ce monsieur d.i.c.k, et a present que je le regarde--vraiment il a une a.s.sez jolie tournure.

LADY AMARANTHE--(_with increasing interest._)

Have you any children?

d.i.c.k--(_with a sigh._)

No, ma'am; and that's the only thing as frets us.

LADY AMARANTHE.

Good heavens! you do not mean to say you wish for them, and have scarce enough for yourselves? how would you feed them?

d.i.c.k.

Oh, I should leave Meg to feed them; I should have nothing to do but to work for them. Providence would take care of us while they were little; and, when they were big, they would help us.

LADY AMARANTHE--(_aside._)

I could not have conceived this. (_She whispers JUSTINE, who goes out._) (_To d.i.c.k._) Can I do any thing to serve you?

d.i.c.k.

Only, if your ladys.h.i.+p could recommend me any custom; I mend shoes as cheap as e'er a cobbler in London, though I say it.

LADY AMARANTHE.

I shall certainly desire that all my people employ you whenever there is occasion.