MRS. GARDNER. Then ’tis time you did begin. WILLIAM. And what’s more, I’ll not do it, neither. MRS. GARDNER. Then I must tell John that we have no further need of his services, for where the money to pay him is to come from, I don’t know. [_She rolls up her knitting and rises_. WILLIAM. Stop a moment, Mother—stop a moment. Maybe ’twon’t be so bad when I’ve got more used to the idea. You’ve pitched it upon me so sudden like. MRS. GARDNER. Rent day has pitched upon me more sudden, William. WILLIAM. Look you, Mother, I’ll get and turn it about in my mind a bit. And, maybe, I’ll talk it over with John. I can’t do more, can I now? MRS. GARDNER. Talk it over with whom you please, William. But remember ’tis this very afternoon that you have to start courting. I’ve laid your best clothes out all ready on your bed. WILLIAM. [_Sighing heavily_.] O then I count there’s no way out of it. But how am I to bring it off? ’Tis that I’d like to know. MRS. GARDNER. Maybe your man will be able to give you some suitable advice. Such things are beyond me, I’m afraid. [_She gathers up her work things_, _and with a contemptuous look at her son_, _she goes slowly out of the garden_. [WILLIAM _remains on the path lost in perturbed thought_. _Suddenly he goes to the gate and calls loudly_. WILLIAM. John, John! JOHN. [_From afar_.] Yes, master. WILLIAM. [_Calling_.] Come you here, John, as quick as you can run. JOHN. That I will, master. [JOHN _hurries into the garden_. WILLIAM. John, I’m powerful upset. JOHN. Mistress’s fowls bain’t got among the flowers again, be they, Master William? WILLIAM. No, no, John. ’Tisn’t so bad as that. But I’m in a smartish fix, I can tell you. JOHN. How’s that, master? WILLIAM. John, did you ever go a’courting? JOHN. Well, master, that’s a thing to ask a man! WILLIAM. ’Tis a terrible serious matter, John. Did you ever go? JOHN. Courting? WILLIAM. Yes. JOHN. Why, I count as I have went a score of times, master. WILLIAM. A score of times, John! But that was before you were got to the age you are now? JOHN. Before that, and now, master. WILLIAM. And now, John? JOHN. To be sure, master. WILLIAM. Then you know how ’tis done? JOHN. Ah, that I does, master. WILLIAM. Well, John, you’re the man for me. JOHN. Lord bless us, master, but what have you to do with courting? WILLIAM. You may well ask me, John. Why, look you here—until this very morning, you would say I was a quiet and a peaceable man, with the right place for everything and everything in its place. JOHN. Ah, and that you was, Master William. And a time for all things too, and a decenter, proper gentleman no man ever served—that’s truth. WILLIAM. Ah, John—the mistress has set her will to change all this. JOHN. Now, you’d knock me down with a feather. WILLIAM. That she has, John. I’ve got to set out courting—a thing I’ve never thought to do in all my living days.