“The day after to-morrow, nurse.”
“There now! I knew your birthday could not be far off. Well, then, you must wait till you are of age, and then, if they torment you or put on you, 'Good-morning,' says you; 'if we can't agree together, let's agree to part,' says you.”
“What! leave my relations!!”
“It is their own fault. Good friends before bad kindred! They only want to make a handle of you to get 'em rich son-in-laws. You pluck up a sperrit, Miss Lucy. There's no getting through the world without a bit of a sperrit. You'll get put upon at every turn else; and if they don't vally you in that house, why, off to another; y'ain't chained to their door, I do suppose.”
“But, nurse, a young lady cannot live by herself: there is no instance of it.”
“All wisdom had a beginning. 'Oh, shan't I spoil the pudding once I cut it?' quoth Jack's wife.”
“What would people say?”
“What could they say? You come to me, which I am all the mother you have got left upon earth, and what scandal could they make out of that, I should like to know? Let them try it. But don't let me catch it atween their lips, or down they do go on the bare ground, and their caps in pieces to the winds of heaven;” and she flourished her hand and a massive arm with a gesture free, inspired, and formidable.
“Ah! nurse, with you I should indeed feel safe from every ill. But, for all that, I shall never go beyond the usages of society. I shall never leave my aunt's house.”
“I don't say as you will. But I shall get your room ready this afternoon, and no later.”