'Alas, says the old lady, 'that poor girl! I am afraid she will never
be well.' 'Well!' says the elder brother, 'how should Mrs. Betty be well? They
say she is in love.' 'I believe nothing of it,' says the old gentlewoman.
'I don't know,' says the eldest sister, 'what to say to it; they have
made such a rout about her being so handsome, and so charming, and I
know not what, and that in her hearing too, that has turned the
creature's head, I believe, and who knows what possessions may follow
such doings? For my part, I don't know what to make of it.' 'Why, sister, you must acknowledge she is very handsome,' says the
elder brother.
'Ay, and a great deal handsomer than you, sister,' says Robin, 'and
that's your mortification.' 'Well, well, that is not the question,' says his sister; 'that girl is
well enough, and she knows it well enough; she need not be told of it
to make her vain.' 'We are not talking of her being vain,' says the elder brother, 'but of
her being in love; it may be she is in love with herself; it seems my
sisters think so.' 'I would she was in love with me,' says Robin; 'I'd quickly put her out
of her pain.' 'What d'ye mean by that, son,' says the old lady; 'how can you talk so?' 'Why, madam,' says Robin, again, very honestly, 'do you think I'd let
the poor girl die for love, and of one that is near at hand to be had,
too?' 'Fie, brother!', says the second sister, 'how can you talk so? Would
you take a creature that has not a groat in the world?' 'Prithee, child,' says Robin, 'beauty's a portion, and good-humour with
it is a double portion; I wish thou hadst half her stock of both for
thy portion.' So there was her mouth stopped.
'I find,' says the eldest sister, 'if Betty is not in love, my brother
is. I wonder he has not broke his mind to Betty; I warrant she won't
say No.' 'They that yield when they're asked,' says Robin, 'are one step before
them that were never asked to yield, sister, and two steps before them
that yield before they are asked; and that's an answer to you, sister.' This fired the sister, and she flew into a passion, and said, things
were come to that pass that it was time the wench, meaning me, was out
of the family; and but that she was not fit to be turned out, she hoped
her father and mother would consider of it as soon as she could be
removed.