“Very well?
“Very well be it, then.
“And now, Caudle, you’ll not forget the venison? In the City, my dear? You’ll not forget the venison? A haunch, you know; a nice haunch. And you’ll not forget the venison - ?”
“Three times did I fall off to sleep,” says Caudle, “and three times did my wife nudge me with her elbow, exclaiming - ‘You’ll not forget the venison?’ At last I got into a sound slumber, and dreamt I was a pot of currant jelly.”
LECTURE XX - “BROTHER” CAUDLE HAS BEEN TO A MASONIC CHARITABLE DINNER. MRS. CAUDLE HAS HIDDEN THE “BROTHER’S” CHEQUE-BOOK
“But all I say is this: I only wish I’d been born a man. What do you say?
“You wish I had?
“Mr. Caudle, I’ll not lie quiet in my own bed to be insulted. Oh, yes, you did mean to insult me. I know what you mean. You mean, if I had been born a man, you’d never have married me. That’s a pretty sentiment, I think; and after the wife I’ve been to you. And now I suppose you’ll be going to public dinners every day! It’s no use your telling me you’ve only been to one before; that’s nothing to do with it - nothing at all. Of course you’ll be out every night now. I knew what it would come to when you were made a mason: when you were once made a ‘brother,’ as you call yourself, I knew where the husband and father would be; - I’m sure, Caudle, and though I’m your own wife, I grieve to say it - I’m sure you haven’t so much heart that you have any to spare for people out of doors. Indeed, I should like to see the man who has! No, no, Caudle; I’m by no means a selfish woman - quite the contrary; I love my fellow-creatures as a wife and mother of a family, who has only to look to her own husband and children, ought to love ’em.
“A ‘brother,’ indeed! What would you say, if I was to go and be made a ‘sister’? Why, I know very well the house wouldn’t hold you.
“Where’s your watch?