CUTLET (Throwing down the book.) Why was I bred to this detestable business? Was it not plain, that this trembling sensibility, which has marked my character from earliest infancy, must for ever disqualify me for a profession which—what do ye want? what do ye buy? O, it is only somebody going past. I thought it had been a customer.—Why was not I bred a glover, like my cousin Langston? to see him poke his two little sticks into a delicate pair of real Woodstock—"A very little stretching ma'am, and they will fit exactly"—Or a haberdasher, like my next-door neighbour—"not a better bit of lace in all town, my lady—Mrs. Breakstock took the last of it last Friday, all but this bit, which I can afford to let your ladyship have a bargain—reach down that drawer on your left hand, Miss Fisher."
(Enter in haste, Davenport, Marian, and Lucy.)
LUCY This is the house I saw a bill up at, ma'am; and a droll creature the landlord is.
DAVENPORT
We have no time for nicety.
CUTLET
What do ye want? what do ye buy? O, it is only you, Mrs. Lucy.
Lucy whispers Cutlet.
CUTLET I have a set of apartments at the end of my garden. They are quite detached from the shop. A single lady at present occupies the ground floor.
MARIAN
Aye, aye, any where.
DAVENPORT
In, in.—
CUTLET
Pretty lamb,—she seems agitated. Davenport and Marian go in with
Cutlet.