es. 'Howiver,
I'll noot denay that the Goothic stayle's prithy anoof, an' it's
woonderful how near them stoon-carvers cuts oot the shapes o' the pine
apples, an' shamrucks, an' rooses. I dare sey Sir Cristhifer'll meck a
naice thing o' the Manor, an' there woon't be many gentlemen's houses i'
the coonthry as'll coom up to't, wi' sich a garden an' pleasure-groons
an' wall-fruit as King George maight be prood on.'

'Well, I can't think as the house can be better nor it is, Gothic or no
Gothic,' said Mrs. Bellamy; 'an' I've done the picklin' and preservin' in
it fourteen year Michaelmas was a three weeks. But what does my lady say
to't?'

'My lady knows better than cross Sir Cristifer in what he's set his mind
on,' said Mr. Bellamy, who objected to the critical tone of the
conversation. 'Sir Cristifer'll hev his own way, _that_ you may tek your
oath. An' i' the right on't too. He's a gentleman born, an's got the
money. But come, Mester Bates, fill your glass, an' we'll drink health
an' happiness to his honour an' my lady, and then you shall give us a
song. Sir Cristifer doesn't come hum from Italy ivery night.'

This demonstrable position was accepted without hesitation as ground for
a toast; but Mr. Bates, apparently thinking that his song was not an
equally reasonable sequence, ignored the second part of Mr. Bellamy's
proposal. So Mrs. Sharp, who had been heard to say that she had no
thoughts at all of marrying Mr. Bates, though he was 'a sensable
fresh-coloured man as many a woman 'ud snap at for a husband,' enforced
Mr. Bellamy's appeal.

'Come, Mr. Bates, let us hear "Roy's Wife." I'd rether hear a good old
song like that, nor all the fine Italian toodlin.'

Mr. Bates, urged thus flatteringly, stuck his thumbs into the armholes of
his waistcoat, threw himself back in his chair with his head in that
position in which he could look directly towards the zenith, and struck
up a remarkably _staccato_ rendering of 'Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch'. This
melody may certainly be taxed with excessive iteration, but that was
precisely its highest recommendation to the present audience, who found
it all the easier to swell the chorus. Nor did it at all diminish their
pleasure that the only particular concerning 'Roy's Wife', which Mr.
Bates's enunciation allowed them to gather, was that she 'chated'
him,--whether in the matter of garden stuff or of some other commodity,
or why her name should, in consequence, be repeatedly reiter