'She's wrong there,' says Robin, 'for if there was not a great deal
between us, we should be closer together than we are. I told her I
loved her hugely,' says he, 'but I could never make the jade believe I
was in earnest.' 'I do not know how you should,' says his mother;
'nobody in their senses could believe you were in earnest, to talk so
to a poor girl, whose circumstances you know so well.
'But prithee, son,' adds she, 'since you tell me that you could not
make her believe you were in earnest, what must we believe about it?
For you ramble so in your discourse, that nobody knows whether you are
in earnest or in jest; but as I find the girl, by your own confession,
has answered truly, I wish you would do so too, and tell me seriously,
so that I may depend upon it. Is there anything in it or no? Are you
in earnest or no? Are you distracted, indeed, or are you not? 'Tis a
weighty question, and I wish you would make us easy about it.' 'By my faith, madam,' says Robin, ''tis in vain to mince the matter or
tell any more lies about it; I am in earnest, as much as a man is
that's going to be hanged. If Mrs. Betty would say she loved me, and
that she would marry me, I'd have her tomorrow morning fasting, and
say, 'To have and to hold,' instead of eating my breakfast.' 'Well,' says the mother, 'then there's one son lost'; and she said it
in a very mournful tone, as one greatly concerned at it.
'I hope not, madam,' says Robin; 'no man is lost when a good wife has
found him.' 'Why, but, child,' says the old lady, 'she is a beggar.' 'Why, then, madam, she has the more need of charity,' says Robin; 'I'll
take her off the hands of the parish, and she and I'll beg together.' 'It's bad jesting with such things,' says the mother.
'I don't jest, madam,' says Robin. 'We'll come and beg your pardon,
madam; and your blessing, madam, and my father's.' 'This is all out of the way, son,' says the mother. 'If you are in
earnest you are undone.' 'I am afraid not,' says he, 'for I am really afraid she won't have me;
after all my sister's huffing and blustering, I believe I shall never
be able to persuade her to it.' 'That's a fine tale, indeed; she is not so far out of her senses
neither. Mrs. Betty is no fool,' says the younger sister. 'Do you
think she has learnt to say No, any more than other people?' 'No, Mrs. Mirth-wit,' says Robin, 'Mrs. Betty's no fool; but Mrs. Betty
may be engaged some other way, and what then?' 'Nay,' says the eldest sister, 'we can say nothing to that. Who must
it be to, then? She is never out of the doors; it must be between you.' 'I have nothing to say to that,' says Robin. 'I have been examined
enough; there's my brother. If it must be between us, go to work with
him.' This stung the elder brother to the quick, and he concluded that Robin
had discovered something. However, he kept himself from appearing
disturbed. 'Prithee,' says he, 'don't go to shame your stories off
upon me; I tell you, I deal in no such ware; I have nothing to say to
Mrs. Betty, nor to any of the Mrs. Bettys in the parish'; and with that
he rose up and brushed off.