AUGUS. But, my dear, this conduct of yours is downright oriental despotism; of all the tyrannies, there are none like the domestic.
MRS. BOBBINS. She shall go this very day! It’s most abominable! I’ll pay her wages and send her about her business!
REBECCA. (coming down, C.) Oh, very well, ma’am, just as you please about that! I’m sure I don’t want to stay—a month’s warning, or a month’s wages!
MRS. BOBBINS. Oh, you are there, are you! Bold faced young woman, take your wages. (giving her money) Pack up your things and prepare to leave my service to-night.
REBECCA. (counting the money) Sixteen and eightpence, all right, ma’am, and as for my place that is no great loss I’m sure! I can easily get a better! I have only to choose. (aside and tossing her head as she goes out, C. to L.) Straightlaced crosspatch; she’s more fit for an old maid, than a married woman.
AUGUS. (in chair, L.) Another victim to your implacable jealousy, Constantia.
MRS. BOBBINS. (R.) Jealous of you! ha, ha, ha! Really Augustus, you have a good opinion of yourself.
AUGUS. (offended, and rising) Jealous of me, yes to be sure, why not? You know you are; we can’t keep a servant in the place for it; we have been married scarcely three years, and this is the nineteenth you have discharged.
MRS. BOBBINS. Well, sir, and whose fault is that? A man without the slightest sense of common propriety! or what is due to his own dignity as a master of a family!
AUGUS. Go on, my dear, go on!