On the morning after our wedding, before we had had time to look around us in our three-roomed cottage—it was designed for one of the Thames fisherman: hardly had I found time to talk over the disposition of the furniture, I perceived, from the casement window, marching valiantly down the lane from St. George's Fields, my old friend Mr. David Camlet. The day was warm and he carried his wig and hat in one hand, mopping his head with a handkerchief.
'He comes to visit us, my dear,' I said. 'It is Mr. Camlet. What is he bringing with him?'
For beside him a man dragged a hand-cart in which lay something large and square, covered with matting.
'He is the maker of musical instruments,' I explained. 'Alice, what if—in the cart——'
'Oh, Will—if it were——'
Know that my great desire was to possess a harpsichord, which for purposes of composition is almost a necessity. But such an instrument was altogether beyond my hopes. I might as well have yearned for an organ.
He stopped where the houses began and looked about him. He made straight for our door which was open and knocked gently with his knuckles.
Alice went out to meet him. By this time he had put on his wig and stood with his hat under his arm.
'The newly married lady of my young friend, Master Will Halliday?' he asked. 'I knew it. In such a matter I am never wrong. Virtue, Madam, sits on thy brow, Love upon thy lips. Permit an old man—yet a friend of thy worthy husband'—so saying he kissed her with great ceremony. Then at length, the room being rather dark after the bright sunshine, he perceived me, and shaking hands wished me every kind of happiness.
'I am old,' he said, 'and it is too late for me to become acquainted with Love. Yet I am assured that if two people truly love one another, to the bearing of each other's burdens: to working for each other: then may life be stripped of half its terrors. I say nothing of the blessing of children, the support and prop of old age. My children, love each other always,' Alice took my hand. 'For better for worse; in poverty and in riches: love each other always.'