BELL: Poor fool: though I’ve no cause to call her so; For women are mostly fools, where men come in. You’re not the vanished bride? Then who’ve I blabbed The family-secrets to, unsnecking the cupboard, And setting the skeleton rattling his bones? I took you For one of us, who’d ken our pretty ways; And reckoned naught I could tell of Jim to Jim’s wife Could startle her, though she’d no notion of it. JUDITH: I took you for Jim’s wife. BELL: Me! I’m a fool-- But never fool enough to wear a ring For any man. JUDITH: Yet, Mistress Barrasford? BELL: They call me that: but I’m Bell Haggard still; And will be to the day I die, and after: Though, happen, there’ll be marriage and giving in marriage In hell; for old Nick’s ever been matchmaker. In that particular, heaven would suit me better: But I’ve travelled the wrong road too far to turn now. JUDITH: Then you’re not the mother of Michael Barrasford? BELL: And who’s the brass to say he’s not my son? I’m no man’s wife: but what’s to hinder me From being a mother? JUDITH: Then Jim is his father? BELL: And what’s it got to do with you, the man I chose for my son’s father? Chose--God help us! That’s how we women gammon ourselves. Deuce kens The almighty lot choice has to do with it! JUDITH: It wasn’t Jim, then? BELL: Crikey! You’re not blate Of asking questions: I’ve not been so riddled Since that old egg-with-whiskers committed me. Why harp on Jim? I’ve not clapped eyes on Jim, Your worship; though I fear I must plead guilty To some acquaintance with the family, As you might put it; seeing that Jim’s brother Is my son’s father; though how it came to happen, The devil only kenned; and he’s forgotten. JUDITH: Thank God, it wasn’t Jim. BELL: And so say I: Though, kenning only Peter, I’m inclined To fancy Jim may be the better man. What licks me is, what it’s to do with you? And why I answer your delicate questions, woman? Even old hard-boiled drew the line somewhere. JUDITH: I’m the mother of Jim’s daughter. BELL: You’re the wench The bride found here--and the mother of a daughter; And live ... JUDITH: At Bellingham. BELL: Where Michael finds So often he’s pressing business, must be seen to-- Something to do with sheep. I see ... To think I didn’t guess! Why is it, any man Can put the blinkers on us? But, was I blind, Or only wanting not to see--afraid Of what I’ve been itching after all these years? Can a hawk be caged so long, it’s scared to watch The cage door opening? More to it than that: After all, there’s something of the mother in me. Ay: you’ve found Michael’s minney! As for his dad, It’s eight-year since he quitted Krindlesyke, The second time, for good. JUDITH: He left you?