Part 25 (1/2)

_Nelly._ Not Copernicus, so fiery red? not the Great Bear?

_Peter._ Why, I don't know; I really think I do see something. No I don't, after all.

_Nelly._ Ah! then you want faith--you want faith. I, who see them all, must read them for you. Away; in three hours hence, you'll meet me here.

(_Turns away._)

_Peter._ Well, you might at least be civil; but that's not the custom of great people. What a wonderful woman, to see the stars at noonday! Well, I'll put my faith in her, at all events.

(_Exit Peter. d.i.c.k and Bill come forward with the poultry picked._)

_d.i.c.k._ Well, missus, ban't he a soft cove?

_Nelly._ I have not done with him yet.

_Bill._ Now let's get our dinner ready. The fowls be a axing for the pot.

_d.i.c.k._ And goose to be roasted.

_Bill._ No, I say; they'd smell us a mile. Your liquorice chops will transport you yet.

_d.i.c.k._ Tell ye, Bill, goose shall be roasted. May I grow honest, but it shall. I'll give up a pint--I'll sacrifice sage and innions. Eh, missus?

_Nelly._ The sooner they are out of sight the better. [_They retire; the scene closes._

_Scene III._

_A Drawing-Room in the Hall._

_Enter Admiral and Lady Etheridge._

_Lady Eth._ Indeed, Admiral, I insist upon it, that you give the brutal seaman warning; or, to avoid such a plebeian mode of expression, advertise him to depart.

_Adm._ My dear, old Barnstaple has served me afloat and ash.o.r.e these four-and-twenty years, and he's a little the worse for wear and tear. In a cutting-out affair his sword warded off the blow that would have sacrificed my life. We must overlook a little----

_Lady Eth._ Yes, that's always your way; always excusing. A serving man to appear fuddled in the presence of Lady Etheridge! faugh! And yet, not immediately to have his coat stripped off his back, and be kicked out of doors; or, to avoid the plebeian, expatriated from the portals.

_Adm._ Expatriated!

_Lady Eth._ How you take one up, Admiral. You know I meant to say expatiated.

_Adm._ Ah! that is mending the phrase, indeed. I grant that he was a little so so; but then, recollect, it was I who gave them the ale.

_Lady Eth._ Yes, that's your way, Sir Gilbert; you spoil them all. I shall never get a servant to show me proper respect. I may scold, scold, scold; or, to speak more aristocratically, vituperate, from morning till night.

_Adm._ Well, then, my dear, why trouble yourself to vituperate at all, as you call it? Keep them at a distance, and leave scolding to the housekeeper.

_Lady Eth._ Housekeeper, indeed! No, Sir Gilbert; she's just as bad as the rest. Once give her way, and she would treat me with disrespect, and cheat you in the bargain; or, less plebeianly, nefariously depropriate----

_Adm._ Appropriate, you mean, my dear.