There was a pause. Then said Mrs. Roper again, "They're furrin lemons. I would say it to 'is face. I ask 'im on me death-bed for lemons and 'e sends me them! Furrin ones! Don't you think they're furrin, Doctor?"
"I'm sure of it," replied the doctor.
There was another pause, during which Mrs. Roper applied a variety of new and second-hand wearing apparel to her eyes. But the gift of articulation soon returned to her.
"I," she explained, with biting irony, "am on'y 'is wife. I ain't jolly. I don't flatter 'im. I don't make a fuss of 'im. I don't make meself agreeable. I'm on'y 'is wife. I on'y tell 'im the truth. What does 'e wanter give good lemons to me for?"
"If you could let me know when he returns," submitted Dr. Brink, "I would talk these matters over with him. In the meantime, I will send you round some medicine, which——"
"What's the good of medicine to me?" demanded Mrs. Roper. "I'm on'y 'is wife. You go round to the undertaker's, Doctor, and tell 'im to send me round a wooden ulster. That's the on'y thing as'll bring me any peace. I ain't one of your jolly sort, you see. I don't go round to me cousin Alfered's and make meself agreeable and play nap. 'Is cousin Alfered's, indeed! It isn't 'is cousin Alfered as 'e goes to visit, Doctor; you take my word for that, Doctor; I s'pose I'm blind, eh, Doctor? An' deaf an' dumb an' parulised? I s'pose I ain't aware that cousin Alfered 'as got a wife? A wife! That's what 'e calls 'er! If she's a honest married woman, Doctor, 'ow d'you account for 'er bein' ser very lovin' to 'er 'usband?"
"I have left off trying to account for these things," explained the doctor. "About your medicine now. I want you——"
But Mrs. Roper had struck a more fascinating theme than that of medicine. "Married!" she ejaculated. "Ha! Married! And she ser jolly! Ser good-tempered, ser fussy, ser full o' compliments! No wonder as my man likes to play nap at 'is cousin Alfered's. There's two or three jolly ones together in that 'ouse.
"She's a 'igh-spirited lady too. Ser full of romps an' all. She reads the papers, too, and listens to their jokes, and laughs.
"Well, well, Doctor, it's time that wooden ulster come. It won't arrive before I'm ready for it. This world ain't no fit place for me.