“Them as she made, arter she was took ill,” replied the old gentleman.
“Wot wos they?”
“Somethin’ to this here effect. ‘Veller,’ she says, ‘I’m afeard I’ve not done by you quite wot I ought to have done; you’re a wery kind-hearted man, and I might ha’ made your home more comfortabler. I begin to see now,’ she says, ‘ven it’s too late, that if a married ’ooman vishes to be religious, she should begin vith dischargin’ her dooties at home, and makin’ them as is about her cheerful and happy, and that vile she goes to church or chapel, or wot not, at all proper times, she should be wery careful not to conwert this sort o’ thing into a excuse for idleness or self-indulgence. I have done this,’ she says, ‘and I’ve wasted time and substance on them as has done it more than me; but I hope ven I’m gone, Veller, that you’ll think on me as I wos afore I know’d them people, and as I raly wos by natur’.’ ‘Susan,’ says I—I wos took up wery short by this, Samivel; I von’t deny it, my boy—‘Susan,’ I says, ‘you’ve been a wery good vife to me, altogether; don’t say nothin’ at all about it: keep a good heart, my dear; and you’ll live to see me punch that ’ere Stiggins’s head yet.’ She smiled at this, Samivel,” said the old gentleman, stifling a sigh with his pipe, “but she died arter all!”
“Vell,” said Sam, venturing to offer a little homely consolation, after the lapse of three or four minutes, consumed by the old gentleman in slowly shaking his head from side to side and solemnly smoking; “vell, gov’ner, ve must all come to it, one day or another.”
“So we must, Sammy,” said Mr. Weller the elder.
“There’s a Providence in it all,” said Sam.
“O’ course there is,” replied his father, with a nod of grave approval. “Wot ’ud become of the undertakers without it, Sammy?”
Lost in the immense field of conjecture opened by this reflection, the elder Mr. Weller laid his pipe on the table, and stirred the fire with a meditative visage.
While the old gentleman was thus engaged, a very buxom-looking cook, dressed in mourning, who had been bustling about in the bar, glided into the room, and bestowing many smirks of recognition upon Sam, silently stationed herself at the back of his father’s chair, and announced her presence by a slight cough; the which, being disregarded, was followed by a louder one.
“Hallo!” said the elder Mr. Weller, dropping the poker as he looked round, and hastily drew his chair away. “Wot’s the matter now?”