BEN
I was just going with it.
CUTLET
Well go. Where was I? Oh!
"And licks the hand just raised to shed its blood."
What an affecting picture! (turns over the leaves, and reads).
"It is probable that the long lives which are recorded of the people before the flood, were owing to their being confined to a vegetable diet."
BEN The young gentleman in Pullen's Row, Islington, that has got the consumption, has sent to know if you can let him have a sweetbread.
CUTLET Take two,—take all that are in the shop. What a disagreeable interruption! (reads again). "Those fierce and angry passions, which impel man to wage destructive war with man, may be traced to the ferment in the blood produced by an animal diet."
BEN The two pound of rump-steaks must go home to Mr. Molyneux's. He is in training to fight Cribb.
CUTLET Well, take them; go along, and do not trouble me with your disgusting details.
[Exit Ben.]