Springhaven: A Tale of the Great WarBlackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge)
History
Springhaven: A Tale of the Great War
Blackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge)
Great Britain -- History -- Regency, 1800-1837 -- Fiction
“Oh, that was how your ladyship condescended; and to keep out the fowls,
you locked out me! Allow me the royal and unapparelled honour of showing
your ladyship to her carriage; and if I ever catch her in here again,
I'll pitch you down the court-yard pretty quick. Be off, you dirty
baggage, or I won't answer for it now!”
“Oh, you are too kind, Mr. Swipes; I am sure you are too gentle, to
forgive me, like of that! And the little list I made of the flowers
in your garden, I shall put it in a teapot till the Quality wants
something.”
Mr. Swipes gave a start, and his over-watered eyes could not meet those
of Mary, which were mildly set upon them. “List!” he muttered--“little
list! What do you please to mean, Miss?”
“Well, the 'dirty baggage' means nothing unparalleled, sir, but just the
same as anybody else might do. Some people calls it a Inventionary, and
some an Emmarandum, and some a Catalogue. It don't interfere with you,
Mr. Swipes; only the next time as Miss Dolly asks, the same as she was
doing the other day--”
“Oh, she was, was she? The little -----!” Mr. Swipes used a word
concerning that young lady which would have insured his immediate
discharge, together with one from the Admiral's best toe. “And pray,
what was her observations, ma'am?”
“It was Charles told me, for he was waiting at dinner. Seems that the
turnip was not to her liking, though I picked out the very best of what
few you sent in, so she looks up from her plate, and she says: 'Well, I
cannot understand it! To me it is the greatest mistress in the world,'
she says, 'that we never can get a bit of vegetable fit for eating.
We've got,' she says, 'a kitchen-garden close upon two acres, and a man
who calls himself head gardener, by the name of Swipes'--my pardoning
to you, Mr. Swipes, for the young lady's way of saying it--'and his two
sons, and his nephew, and I dare say soon his grandsons. Well, and what
comes of it?' says she. 'Why, that we never has a bit of any kind
of vegetable, much less of fruit, fit to lay a fork to!' Charles was
a-pricking up his ears at this, because of his own grumbles, and the
master saw it, and he says, 'Hush, Dolly!' But she up and answers
spiritly: 'No, I won't hush, papa, because it is too bad. Only you
leave it to me,' she says, 'and if I don't keep the key from that old
thief--excoose me, Mr. Swipes, for her shocking language--'and find out
what he locks up in there, my name's not Horatia Dorothy Darling.' Oh,
don't let it dwell so on your mind, Mr. Swipes! You know what young
ladies be. They says things random, and then goes away and never
thinks no more about it. Oh, don't be upset so--or I shall have to call
Charles!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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