I'm not such a fool, but I know how
to put this and that together, though he thinks I don't know of his
doings; but I'll be even with you, Meg Partlet, yet--you trollop;' and
all this was delivered in renewed floods of tears, and stentorian
hysterics, while she shook her fat red fist in the air, at the presumed
level of Meg's beautiful features.
'Nay, Madam,' said the gay captain; 'I prithee, weep not; the like
discoveries, as you have read, have been made in Rome, Salamanca,
Ballyporeen, Babylon, Venice, and fifty other famous cities.' He always
felt in these interviews, as if she and he were extemporising a
burlesque--she the Queen of Crim Tartary, and he an Archbishop in her
court--and would have spoken blank verse, only he feared she might
perceive it, and break up the conference.
'And what's that to the purpose?--don't I know they're the same all over
the world--nothing but brutes and barbarians.'
'But suppose, Madam, he has only gone up the river, and just taken his
rod----'
'Oh! rod, indeed. I know where he wants a rod, the rascal!'
'I tell you, Madam,' urged the chaplain, 'you're quite in the wrong.
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