MRS. GARDNER. O you put me out of all patience, William. Where’s the rent to come from if we go on like this? And the clothing, and the food? And John’s wages, and your flower seeds, if it comes to that, for you have got terrible wasteful over the flowers. WILLIAM. I wish you’d take it quieter, Mother. Look at you bed of musk, ’tis a grand smell that comes up from it all around. MRS. GARDNER. No, William. I’ve no eye for musk, nor nose to smell at it either till you’ve spoken the word that I require. WILLIAM. Best let things bide as they are, Mother. MRS. GARDNER. I’ll leave you no rest till you do as I wish, William. I’m got an old woman, and ’tis hard I should be denied in aught that I’ve set my heart upon. WILLIAM. Please to set it upon something different, Mother, for I’m not a marrying man, and John he’ll tell you the same thing. MRS. GARDNER. John! I’m sick of the very name of him. I can’t think how ’tis that you can lower yourself by being so close with a common farm hand, William. WILLIAM. Ah, ’twould be a rare hard matter to find the equal to John, Mother. ’Tis of gold all through, and every bit of him, that he is made. You don’t see many like John these days, that’s the truth. MRS. GARDNER. Well, then, John, won’t be here much longer, for we shan’t have anything to give him if things go on like this. WILLIAM. I’d wed forty wives sooner than lose John—and that I would. MRS. GARDNER. I’m not asking you to wed forty. ’Tis only one. WILLIAM. And that one? MRS. GARDNER. The young person who’s got Luther’s farm. Her name is Julia. WILLIAM. [_Leaving his flower border and walking up and down thoughtfully_.] Would she be the one with the cherry colour ribbons to her gown? MRS. GARDNER. I’m sure I don’t know. I was not at church last Sunday. WILLIAM. Or t’other one in green? MRS. GARDNER. You appear to have used your eyes pretty well, William. WILLIAM. O, I can see a smartish bit about me when I choose. MRS. GARDNER. T’other wench is but the housekeeper. WILLIAM. Where did you get that from? MRS. GARDNER. ’Twas Susan who told me. She got it off someone down in the village. WILLIAM. Well, which of the maids would have had the cherry-coloured ribbons to her, Mother? MRS. GARDNER. I’m sure I don’t know, but if you go up there courting this afternoon, may happen that you’ll find out. WILLIAM. This afternoon? O, that’s much too sudden like. MRS. GARDNER. Not a bit of it. Recollect, your fancy has been set on her since Sunday. WILLIAM. Come, Mother, you can’t expect a man to jump into the river all of a sudden like this. MRS. GARDNER. I expect you to go up there this very day and to commence telling her of your feelings. WILLIAM. But I’ve got no feelings that I can tell her of, Mother. MRS. GARDNER. Then you’ll please to find some, William. WILLIAM. ’Tis a thing that in all my life I’ve never done as to go visiting of a strange wench of an afternoon.