“In what? Doesn’t she like the terms?—Give her her own; you can afford it, if she suits you.”
“She likes the terms well enough. Don’t you see she offers to come at half what I give, if permitted to bring her child.”
“Then where on earth is the difficulty? I don’t see it.”
“Why, about the child, Judge.”
“Oh, the little girl. Well, let the woman bring her child; what possible objection can there be to that?”
“Yes, but she would be an encumbrance.”
“On whom, I would like to know? Not on you, not on me, and certainly not on her mother. Nonsense, my dear, let the child come; never make a difficulty about that.”
“But children are so troublesome—”
“Especially when they are not our own. Tut, tut, if you don’t want the woman, don’t take her; but if you do want her, take her, and let her bring her little one. Bless my soul alive, haven’t we got five or six dogs, and seven or eight cats, and half a score of birds? and if one child can make a hundredth part of the noise that they do, I’m greatly mistaken.”
“Yes, but children are not like them; children are always eating cake, or sucking toffy, and toddling about with nasty, sticky hands, laying hold of your skirts—”