S. You think of having a man! a young girl like you! If I but catch the boy Huey Lenine here, I’ll break his neck I declare. I can never wear old Jane’s stockings any more. Why, thee dust ought to be proud to know that the people from all over the parish, who were never to church before in their lives, come, and from parishes round, that they may see my fine stockings. And don’t I stop outside the church door—ay, sometimes two hours or more—that the women may see thy fine work? Haven’t I stopped at the cross till the parson came out to call the people in, because he and the clerk, he said, wanted to begin?
[The Squire places himself beside Duffy on the chimney-stool. The devil comes out of the wood-corner, and ranges himself behind them. Whenever the Squire is backward, the devil tickles him behind the ear or under the ribs. His infernal highness is supposed to be invisible throughout. Huey shews a wry face now and then, with clenched fist, through the oven door.
The following portion, which is the Squire’s courtship of Duffy with the help of the devil, is a sort of duet in the old play. I don’t remember the whole, yet sufficient, I think, to give some idea of the way it is intended to be carried out:—
S. No; I’ll marry thee myself, rather than Huey Lenine
Shall ever wear stockings the equal of mine.
Thou shall have the silk gowns, all broider’d in gold,
In the old oak chest; besides jewels and rings,
With such other fine things,
In the old oak chest, as thee didst never behold.
D. I’d rather work all the day by any young man’s side,