John. Ah, that I does, master.
William. Well, John, you’re the man for me.
John. Lord bless us, master, but what have you to do with courting?
William. You may well ask me, John. Why, look you here—until this very morning, you would say I was a quiet and a peaceable man, with the right place for everything and everything in its place.
John. Ah, and that you was, Master William. And a time for all things too, and a decenter, proper gentleman no man ever served—that’s truth.
William. Ah, John—the mistress has set her will to change all this.
John. Now, you’d knock me down with a feather.
William. That she has, John. I’ve got to set out courting—a thing I’ve never thought to do in all my living days.
John. That I’ll be bound you have not, Master William, though a finer gentleman than yourself is not to be found in all the country side.
William. [With shy eagerness.] Is that how I appear to you, John?