“Yes, my lord. She has a very good business, or had before the equality folks set up a store against us. I don’t like equality, not I. But my wife sends word, my lady....”
“You do not like equality!” interrupted Letitia. “If there was equality, you know, you would not need to mind who set up a store, and what came of your wife’s grocery business.—And do not you like this place too,—these woods, and the deer, and the lake?”
White lauded the grandeur and beauty of Weston.
“Well; this place would be as much yours as ours if there was equality. You might fish on the lake, and shoot in the preserves, and....”
“And lie down to sleep in the sun here beside the well,” continued lord F——; “and all without asking anybody’s leave.”
“I thank you kindly, my lord; but I like sleeping in my bed, if I sleep at all, unless it be dozing over my pipe, while Jack is reading the news at the Duke’s Head. The only time I went fishing, I fell into the water; so you’ll not soon find me in a boat again. My wife and I like a chicken now and then, on Sundays; so a share of your poultry-yard would be welcome perhaps; and, as for the deer and game, I leave it to other folks to get out of their warm beds for the sake of it. It would not answer to me to be laid by with the rheumatism for such a cause, you see.”
“But there would be no poaching if there was equality,” said Letitia, laughing. “Cannot game be shot in the daytime?”
“By none but gentlemen, my lady, as I have always heard. However, the equality folks have no more game, as far as I know, than other people. The most they pretend to is to have plenty of butcher’s meat.—What I pretend to, and Nanny too, is to get our bread honestly; and so, my lady, she bade me tell you that she has laid in a new stock, hearing your ladyship was coming, and has lost already by its being September instead of June. Light ginghams for morning wear....”
“I thought your wife was a grocer.”
“Grocer and draper, my lady. If your ladyship should find the mornings chilly, as they will be soon, perhaps you would look at her stuffs;—a very pretty variety of browns, as you will see, my lady. And her tea and sugar is of the best; and as for her snuffs....”