Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: La princesse de Clèves by La Fayette Madame De Marie Madeleine Pioche De La Vergne
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 758 lines and 59899 words, and 16 pages
BETTY. With your permission, aunt, I will go abroad to take the air. 'Tis too beauteous a day to remain within.
MISS B. Then I pray you go down to the Meadow Road and buy me some sage cheese from Mrs. Abiel Dickinson. Should you chance to see young William, chatter not with him. 'Tis not seemly for maidens to talk overmuch with men.
BETTY . I will heed your counsel, aunt. 'Twill be best to wear my new bonnet. The old one is sadly shabby.
MISS B. Mandy, you stupid, lay down the plates and put the teapot to warm.
MANDY . Is you goin' to give old Mandy jess a leetle tea to-day, missy? I knows tea is powerful 'spensive. Why so, missy?
MISS B. Because the Parliament taxes tea. Have you no remembrance of the Boston Tea Party, more than a year agone, when the tea was thrown overboard in Boston Harbor?
MISS B. There is the knocker, Mandy. Do you attend the door. Good-afternoon, Mrs. Strong; good-afternoon, Mrs. Cowles; good-afternoon, Mrs. Adams. I hope I see you all well.
MRS. S. I am in my usual state of good health, thank you, Miss Boltwood.
MRS. C. Save for a slight rheum, I am enjoying the blessing of health, thank you.
MRS. A. Thank you kindly. Miss Boltwood, I am as well as can be expected.
MISS B. Lay aside your cloaks, ladies. Mandy, assist the ladies.
MRS. S. Did I not see your niece Betty flitting through the lane as I came by?
MISS B. It may be. I sent her on an errand to Mrs. Abiel Dickinson's. 'Tis a safe walk to the Meadow Road.
MRS. S. . Laws-a-massy! Is she throwing the girl at William's head?
MRS. A. Sh! She does not know how enamored the young people are. When she learns it--poor Betty!
MISS B. . I pray you, ladies, draw up to the table ere the tea be cold. 'Tis a pity I have none of my rose conserve to give you. I sent it all to my friends in England by the Christmas packet.
MRS. S. Your conserve is marvelous, Miss Boltwood. The receipt is a secret, I presume.
MISS B. A family heirloom, Mrs. Strong. Pray tell me, ladies, if the tea be sufficiently brewed. I can assure you 'tis prime Bohea and no "Liberty Tea"!
MRS. C. 'Tis of an elegant strength and 'tis an elegant tea. I feel certain no duty was paid on it. Was it honestly smuggled, my dear Miss Boltwood?
MISS B. Indeed it was, and through Judge Ingram too. A poor Tory he!
MRS. A. Mayhap the good man will become a patriot in time.
MRS. S. We ought to scorn to use anything taxed, as the king hath used the Colonies so unjustly! Still, 'twould be a hardship to give up the tea.
MISS B. Well, I am neither Tory nor patriot; so I drink smuggled tea, and shall drink it till I am under better advisement. Pray take of the candied cherries, Mrs. Strong. May I fill your cup, Mrs. Cowles? Good-afternoon, Stephen Ingram.
MRS. C. Master! Never again in these colonies!
MRS. S. Our minutemen will match with any British soldiers!
MRS. A. We women can assist our men, if it comes to a war against injustice!
JUDGE . Ladies, ladies! Such ardent patriots, and yet drinking tea!
MRS. A. . If war is coming and our men must fight, I, too, can make some sacrifice. I will give up tea and all taxed articles.
MRS. S. And I!
MRS. C. I, too! Come, Miss Boltwood, join our league. It shall be named from your house where 'twas born, "The Boltwood Band." Come, now.
MISS B. Nay, I am no patriot.
ALL. Come, come; no denial.
MRS. C. This shall be our oath: "We swear to give up tea and all taxed articles till the war be over." Now, in unison.
ALL . We swear to give up tea and all taxed articles till the war be over.
JUDGE . Well, ladies, now that you are all committed to raspberry leaves and linsey-woolsey, I will go.
MISS B. . Mandy! Get you to the kitchen!
MRS. S. Tell us, man! Who was victorious?
MRS. C. Did the Regulars retreat to Boston?
JUDGE. Yes, and I fear it was a rout at the last. Owing to the firing of the rebels from behind walls and trees, the British became panic-stricken.
MRS. S. . Hurroo for our brave men! 'Tis glorious that they routed the trained troops!
MISS B. But why did the fighting begin out at Lexington, Stephen? 'Tis a good ten miles from Boston.
JUDGE. General Gage was hoping to destroy the ammunition at Concord. In some way his plan was learned, and Paul Revere, the goldsmith, rode all night warning the countryside. When the Regulars came, the minutemen were ready.
MRS. A. . Did many men fall?
JUDGE. 'Tis reported a hundred minutemen and nearly three hundred of the king's troops.
MRS. S. Well, thanks for that! Each minuteman, it seems, convoyed three Britishers with him out of existence!
MRS. A. My dear Mrs. Strong! Feel you no pity?
JUDGE . The Hartfield minutemen are summoned to assemble at once at Clapp's Tavern. Methinks I hear the drums.
MRS. C. I must needs return home with the news, Miss Boltwood. I thank you for a very elegant tea.
MISS B. As 'tis your last for the present, I am glad it pleased your taste.
MRS. S. . Forget not your vow, ladies. 'Tis for our hostess to uphold the "Boltwood Band."
MISS B. I have passed my word, and shall keep it. I never break a promise. Farewell, ladies. I fear me, Stephen, troublous times are before us, and there is a matter I would discuss with you. Should the war prove serious I may return to England. I would Betty were well settled, for she is over-impulsive and filled with romance. You are a Tory and will fare well when the patriots are punished, as they doubtless will be. Why should you not marry the child? 'Twould be a most excellent arrangement.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page