“By what means shall I convince you that I'm the Nell you knew? Let me see—ah, I know. Dick, I 'll swear for you; you know well that there was not one could match me in swearing. Let me but begin.”
“O Lord! not for the world. You always knew when to begin, Nell, but you ne'er knew when to stop. And how doth it come that you have n't forgot the brimstone of the Lane, Nelly, though you have become so mighty fine a lady?”
“'Snails, Dick, the best way to remember a language is to keep constantly talking it!”
“But in silks and satins?”
“Oh, I soon found that I only needed to double the intensity of my language in the Lane in order to talk the mother tongue of fashion.”
“If swearing make the fine lady, you'll be the leader of the town, Nell, I'll warrant. But do n't say that you doubled your language—that would be impossible.”
“Oh, would it, indeed?”
“Not so? Then for God's sake do n't give me a sample of what you reached in that way, for I 've only lived among the pirates and buccaneers of the Indies since.”
“Then I'll e'en spare thee, Dick. But take warning: do n't provoke me. You would n't provoke a pirate whose guns you knew to be double-shotted. Do n't say that I'm not Nell Gwyn for all my silks and lace. Why, man, doth oatmeal porridge cease to be porridge because it's served in a silver platter? Did your salt pork turn to venison when you ate it off the gold plate that you stole from the chapels?”
“Lord, Nell, I was n't a pirate.”