Jointure, portion, gold, estate,
Houses, household-stuff, or land,
(The low conveniences of fate,)
Are Greek no lovers understand.
COWLEY
"Verily the Lord scattereth!" was the exclamation of the Reverend Jonas
Fleetword, as he passed from one to another of the apartments of Cecil
Place, seeking for some one with whom to hold converse, yet finding
none. Sir Willmott Burrell was abroad, even at an hour so early; Lady
Frances Cromwell closeted with Constantia; Sir Robert Cecil particularly
engaged; even Barbara Iverk was not to be found--and the poor preacher
had but little chance of either a breakfast or a gossip, or, as he
termed it, "a commune." In the course of his wanderings, however, he at
length encountered Solomon Grundy, puffing and courtesying under the
weight of a huge pasty he was conveying, by a prodigious effort, to the
buttery.
"Ah, Solomon, my friend," said Fleetword, "of a truth it is a pleasant
thing to see thee."
"You mean that you behold something pleasant with me," retorted the
cook; "and of a verity, your reverence----"
"You must not call me reverence; it is one of the designations of the
beast;--my voice is raised against it--against the horned beast."
"This was a horned beast once," again replied Solomon, observing that
the preacher's eye was fixed upon the pasty; "nature may be changed by
cookery. It hath lost all the sinful qualities that you talk about, and
hath become most savoury and nourishing food: doth it resemble the
change that, you say, takes place in the spirit?"
"We must not so mingle profane and sacred things," murmured Fleetword,
placing his forefinger upon the tempting dish, with a longing and eager
look; for he had walked far and was fasting. "Is this one of the baked
meats thou art preparing for the coming festival?"
"What festival?" inquired the cook, surlily: "I know of no festival. Of
a surety, have I laboured in my calling, to furnish forth something
worthy of this house; yet, from what I hear, there will be few at this
wedding to profit by my skill. I little thought to see our dear young
lady so wedded."
"Solomon, feasting is foolishness; it savoureth of the mammon of
unrighteousness: yet was Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord, and
Isaac loved seethed kid. Couldst thou extract a morsel of meat from that
compound, for of a truth I am an hungered?"
"What! spoil my garnishing!" exclaimed Grundy, "look at the frosting of
that horn, and the device, the two doves--see'st thou not the doves?"