MRS. PRIOR.--Bless the man, how abrupt he is in his manner! He quite
shocks a poor lady who has been used to better days. What's here?
Invitations--ho! Bills for Lady Kicklebury! THEY are not paid. Where is
Mr. M. going to dine, I wonder? Captain and Mrs. Hopkinson, Sir John and
Lady Tomkinson, request the pleasure. Request the pleasure! Of course
they do. They are always asking Mr. M. to dinner. They have daughters
to marry, and Mr. M. is a widower with three thousand a year, every
shilling of it. I must tell Lady Kicklebury. He must never go to these
places--never, never--mustn't be allowed. [While talking, she opens all
the letters on the table, rummages the portfolio and writing-box, looks
at cards on mantelpiece, work in work-basket, tries tea-box, and shows
the greatest activity and curiosity.]
Re-enter John, bearing a tray with cakes, a decanter, &c.
Thank you, thank you, Mr. Howell! Oh, oh, dear me, not so much as that!
Half a glass, and ONE biscuit, please. What elegant sherry! [sips a
little, and puts down glass on tray]. Do you know, I remember in better
days, Mr. Howell, when my poor dear husband--
JOHN.--Beg your pardon. There's Milliken's bell, going like mad. [Exit
John.]
MRS. PRIOR.--What an abrupt person! Oh, but it's comfortable, this wine
is! And--and I think how my poor Charlotte would like a little--she so
weak, and ordered wine by the medical man! And when dear Adolphus comes
home from Christ's Hospital, quite tired, poor boy, and hungry, wouldn't
a bit of nice cake do him good! Adolphus is so fond of plum-cake, the
darling child! And so is Frederick, little saucy rogue; and I'll give
them MY piece, and keep my glass of wine for my dear delicate angel
Shatty! [Takes bottle and paper out of her pocket, cuts off a great
slice of cake, and pours wine from wine-glass and decanter into bottle.]
Enter PAGE.
PAGE.--Master George and Miss Bella is going to have their teas down
here with Miss Prior, Mrs. Prior, and she's up in the school-room, and
my lady says you may stay to tea.
MRS. PRIOR.--Thank you, Charles! How tall you grow! Those trousers would
fit my darling Frederick to a nicety. Thank you, Charles. I know the way
to the nursery. [Exit Mrs. P.]
PAGE.--Know the way! I believe she DO know the way. Been a having cake
and wine. Howell always gives her cake and wine--jolly cake, ain't it!
and wine, oh, my!
Re-enter John.
JOHN.--You young gormandizing cormorant! What! five meals a day ain't
enough for you! What? beer ain't good enough for you, hey? [Pulls boy's
ears.]
PAGE [crying].--Oh, oh, do-o-n't, Mr. Howell. I only took half a glass,
upon my honor.
JOHN.--Your a-honor, you lying young vagabond! I wonder the ground don't
open and swallow you. Half a glass! [holds up decanter.] You've took
half a bottle, you young Ananias! Mark this, sir! When I was a boy,
a boy on my promotion, a child kindly took in from charity-school, a
horphan in buttons like you, I never lied; no, nor never stole, and
you've done both, you little scoundrel. Don't tell ME, sir! there's
plums on your coat, crumbs on your cheek, and you smell sherry, sir! I
ain't time to whop you now, but come to my pantry to-night after you've
took the tray down. Come without your jacket on, sir, and then I'll
teach you what it is to lie and steal. There's the outer bell. Scud, you
vagabond!
Enter LADY K.
LADY K.--What was that noise, pray?
JOHN.--A difference between me and young Page, my lady. I was
instructing him to keep his hands from picking and stealing. I was
learning him his lesson, my lady, and he was a-crying it out.
LADY K.--It seems to me you are most unkind to that boy, Howell. He is
my boy, sir. He comes from my estate. I will not have him ill-used. I
think you presume on your long services. I shall speak to my son-in-law
about you. ["Yes, my lady; no, my lady; very good, my lady." John has
answered each sentence as she is speaking, and exit gravely bowing.]
That man must quit the house. Horace says he can't do without him, but
he must do without him. My poor dear Arabella was fond of him, but he
presumes on that defunct angel's partiality. Horace says this person
keeps all his accounts, sorts all his letters, manages all his affairs,
may be trusted with untold gold, and rescued little George out of
the fire. Now I have come to live with my son-in-law, I will keep his
accounts, sort his letters, and take charge of his money: and if little
Georgy gets into the grate, I will take him out of the fire. What is
here? Invitation from Captain and Mrs. Hopkinson. Invitation from Sir
John and Lady Tomkinson, who don't even ask me! Monstrous! he never
shall go--he shall not go! [MRS. PRIOR has re-entered, she drops a very
low curtsy to Lady K., as the latter, perceiving her, lays the cards
down.]
MRS. PRIOR.--Ah, dear madam! how kind your ladyship's message was to the
poor lonely widow woman! Oh, how thoughtful it was of your ladyship to
ask me to stay to tea!
LADY K.--With your daughter and the children? Indeed, my good Mrs.
Prior, you are very welcome!
MRS. PRIOR.--Ah! but isn't it a cause of thankfulness to be MADE
welcome? Oughtn't I to be grateful for these blessings?--yes, I say
BLESSINGS. And I am--I am, Lady Kicklebury--to the mother--of--that
angel who is gone [points to the picture]. It was your sainted daughter
left us--left my child to the care of Mr. Milliken, and--and you, who
are now his guardian angel I may say. You ARE, Lady Kicklebury--you
are. I say to my girl, Julia, Lady Kicklebury is Mr. Milliken's guardian
angel, is YOUR guardian angel--for without you could she keep her place
as governess to these darling children? It would tear her heart in two
to leave them, and yet she would be forced to do so. You know that some
one--shall I hesitate to say whom I MEAN--that Mr. Milliken's mother,
excellent lady though she is, does not love my child because YOU love
her. You DO love her, Lady Kicklebury, and oh! a mother's fond heart
pays you back! But for you, my poor Julia must go--go, and leave the
children whom a dying angel confided to her!
LADY K.--Go! no, never! not whilst I am in this house, Mrs. Prior. Your
daughter is a well-behaved young woman: you have confided to me her long
engagement to Lieutenant--Lieutenant What-d'you-call'im, in the Indian
service. She has been very, very good to my grandchildren--she brought
them over from Naples when my--my angel of an Arabella died there, and I
will protect Miss Prior.
MRS. PRIOR.--Bless you, bless you, noble, admirable woman! Don't take it
away! I must, I WILL kiss your dear, generous hand! Take a mother's, a
widow's blessings, Lady Kicklebury--the blessings of one who has known
misfortune and seen better days, and thanks heaven--yes, heaven!--for
the protectors she has found!
LADY K.--You said--you had--several children, I think, my good Mrs.
Prior?
MRS. PRIOR.--Three boys--one, my eldest blessing, is in a
wine-merchant's office--ah, if Mr. Milliken WOULD but give him an order!
an order from THIS house! an order from Lady Kicklebury's son-in-law!--
LADY K.--It shall be done, my good Prior--we will see.
MRS. PRIOR.--Another, Adolphus, dear fellow! is in Christ's Hospital.
It was dear, good Mr. Milliken's nomination. Frederick is at Merchant
Taylor's: my darling Julia pays his schooling. Besides, I have two
girls--Amelia, quite a little toddles, just the size, though not so
beautiful--but in a mother's eyes all children are lovely, dear Lady
Kicklebury--just the size of your dear granddaughter, whose clothes
would fit her, I am sure. And my second, Charlotte, a girl as tall as
your ladyship, though not with so fine a figure. "Ah, no, Shatty!" I say
to her, "you are as tall as our dear patroness, Lady Kicklebury, whom
you long so to see; but you have not got her ladyship's carriage and
figure, child." Five children have I, left fatherless and penniless by
my poor dear husband--but heaven takes care of the widow and orphan,
madam--and heaven's BEST CREATURES feed them!--YOU know whom I mean.
LADY K.--Should you not like, would you object to take--a frock or two
of little Arabella's to your child? and if Pinhorn, my maid, will let
me, Mrs. Prior, I will see if I cannot find something against winter for
your second daughter, as you say we are of a size.
MRS. PRIOR.--The widow's and orphans' blessings upon you! I said
my Charlotte was as tall, but I never said she had such a figure as
yours--who has?