The Diary of a Goose Girl

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_Bailiffs Daughter_ (hedging).--"I shall be rather busy; the Crossed
Minorca hen comes off to-morrow."

_True Love_.--"Oh, never mind! I'll take her off to-night when I escort
you to the farm; then she'll get a day's advantage."

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--"And rob fourteen prospective chicks of a mother;
nay, lose the chicks themselves? Never!"

_True Love_.--"So long as you are a Goose Girl, does it make any
difference whose you are? Is it any more agreeable to be Mrs. Heaven's
Goose Girl than mine?"

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--"Ah! but in one case the term of service is
limited; in the other, permanent."

_True Love_.--"But in the one case you are the slave of the employer, in
the other the employer of the slave. Why did you run away?"

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--"A man's mind is too dull an instrument to measure
a woman's reason; even my own fails sometimes to deal with all its
delicate shades; but I think I must have run away chiefly to taste the
pleasure of being pursued and brought back. If it is necessary to your
happiness that you should explore all the Bluebeard chambers of my being,
I will confess further that it has taken you nearly three weeks to
accomplish what I supposed you would do in three days!"

_True Love_ (after a well-spent interval).--"To-morrow, then; shall we
say before breakfast? All, do! Why not? Well, then, immediately after
breakfast, and I breakfast at seven nowadays, and sometimes earlier. Do
take off those ugly cotton gloves, dear; they are five sizes too large
for you, and so rough and baggy to the touch!"