Julia. May be I have not far to search.
John. [Taking up the basket.] You’re a rare tricksy maid as ever I did see. Tricksy and tossy too.
Julia. There—that’s enough, John. Suppose you set off home and tell your master he can hang up his meat again in the larder, for all that it concerns me.
John. I’ll be blowed if I do say anything of the sort, mistress. I shall get and tell Master William as you be giving a bit of thought to the matter, and that jowls not being to your fancy, ’tis very like as a dish of trotters may prove acceptabler.
Julia. Say what you like, John. Only let me bide quiet in this good forest now. I want to be with my thoughts.
John. [Preparing to go and speaking aloud to himself.] Her’s a wonderful contrary bird to be sure. And bain’t a shy one neither, what gets timid and flustered and is easily netted. My word, but me and master has a job before us for to catch she.
Julia. I hear you, and ’tis very rudely that you talk. There’s an old saying that I never could see the meaning of before, but now I think ’tis clear, “Like master, like man,” they say. I’ll have none of Master William, and you can tell him so.
[John goes out angrily. Julia sits down again on the bench and begins to sing.
Julia. [Singing.]
My gardener stood by
And told me to take great care,
For in the middle of a red rose-bud
There grows a sharp thorn there.