“Why, be hanged if it ben't my father!” said Mr. Billings.
“Your father, sure enough, unless there be others of his name, and unless the scoundrel is hanged,” said the Doctor—sinking his voice, however, at the end of the sentence.
Mr. Billings broke his pipe in an agony of joy. “I think we'll have the coach now, Mother,” says he; “and I'm blessed if Polly Briggs shall not look as fine as a duchess.”
“Polly Briggs is a low slut, Tom, and not fit for the likes of you, his Excellency's son. Oh, fie! You must be a gentleman now, sirrah; and I doubt whether I shan't take you away from that odious tailor's shop altogether.”
To this proposition Mr. Billings objected altogether; for, besides Mrs. Briggs before alluded to, the young gentleman was much attached to his master's daughter, Mrs. Margaret Gretel, or Gretchen Beinkleider.
“No,” says he. “There will be time to think of that hereafter, ma'am. If my pa makes a man of me, why, of course, the shop may go to the deuce, for what I care; but we had better wait, look you, for something certain before we give up such a pretty bird in the hand as this.”
“He speaks like Solomon,” said the Doctor.
“I always said he would be a credit to his old mother, didn't I, Brock?” cried Mrs. Cat, embracing her son very affectionately. “A credit to her; ay, I warrant, a real blessing! And dost thou want any money, Tom? for a lord's son must not go about without a few pieces in his pocket. And I tell thee, Tommy, thou must go and see his Lordship; and thou shalt have a piece of brocade for a waistcoat, thou shalt; ay, and the silver-hilted sword I told thee of; but oh, Tommy, Tommy! have a care, and don't be a-drawing of it in naughty company at the gaming-houses, or at the—”
“A drawing of fiddlesticks, Mother! If I go to see my father, I must have a reason for it; and instead of going with a sword in my hand, I shall take something else in it.”
“The lad IS a lad of nous,” cried Doctor Wood, “although his mother does spoil him so cruelly. Look you, Madam Cat: did you not hear what he said about Beinkleider and the clothes? Tommy will just wait on the Count with his Lordship's breeches. A man may learn a deal of news in the trying on of a pair of breeches.”