The Wolves and the LambThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Wolves and the Lamb
Thackeray, William Makepeace
English drama -- 19th century
K.--I know you are. So am I. My brother wouldn't give me any, not a
dump. Hang him! Said he had his children to look to. Milliken wouldn't
advance me any more--said I did him in that horse transaction. He! he!
he! so I did! What had I to do but to sell out? And the fellows cut
me, by Jove. Ain't it too bad? I'll take my name off the "Rag," I will,
though.
LADY K.--We must sow our wild oats, and we must sober down; and we must
live here, where the living is very good and very cheap, Clarence, you
naughty boy! And we must get you a rich wife. Did you see at church
yesterday that young woman in light green, with rather red hair and a
pink bonnet?
K.--I was asleep, ma'am, most of the time, or I was bookin' up the
odds for the Chester Cup. When I'm bookin' up, I think of nothin' else,
ma'am,--nothin'.
LADY K.--That was Miss Brocksopp--Briggs, Brown and Brocksopp, the great
sugar-bakers. They say she will have eighty thousand pound. We will ask
her to dinner here.
K.--I say--why the doose do you have such old women to dinner here? Why
don't you get some pretty girls? Such a set of confounded old frumps as
eat Milliken's mutton I never saw. There's you, and his old mother Mrs.
Bonnington, and old Mrs. Fogram, and old Miss What's-her-name, the woman
with the squint eye, and that immense Mrs. Crowder. It's so stoopid,
that if it weren't for Touchit coming down sometimes, and the billiards
and boatin', I should die here--expire, by gad! Why don't you have some
pretty women into the house, Lady Kicklebury?
LADY K.--Why! Do you think I want that picture taken down: and another
Mrs. Milliken? Wisehead! If Horace married again, would he be your
banker, and keep this house, now that ungrateful son of mine has turned
me out of his? No pretty woman shall come into the house whilst I am
here.
K.--Governess seems a pretty woman: weak eyes, bad figure, poky, badly
dressed, but doosid pretty woman.
LADY K.--Bah! There is no danger from HER. She is a most faithful
creature, attached to me beyond everything. And her eyes--her eyes
are weak with crying for some young man who is in India. She has his
miniature in her room, locked up in one of her drawers.
K.--Then how the doose did you come to see it?
LADY K.--We see a number of things, Clarence. Will you drive with me?
K.--Not as I knows on, thank you. No, Ma; drivin's TOO slow: and you're
goin' to call on two or three old dowagers in the Park? Thank your
ladyship for the delightful offer.
Enter JOHN.
JOHN.--Please, sir, here's the man with the bill for the boats; two
pound three.
K.--Damn it, pay it--don't bother ME!
JOHN.--Haven't got the money, sir.
LADY K.--Howell! I saw Mr. Milliken give you a cheque for twenty-five
pounds before he went into town this morning. Look sir [runs, opens
drawer, takes out cheque-book]. There it is, marked, "Howell, 25L."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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