"I'faith, I do!--though you will say it's ill coming from me to fault
any man's conduct; but I hate your little vices as much as your little
virtues: sickly, puny goods and evils, that are too weak for sun to
ripen, too low for blast to break, but which endure, the same withered,
sapless things, to the death-day--Augh! a bold villain, or a real
downright good man, for my money. How the devil can Charles Stuart do
any thing great, or think of any thing great, with his mistresses and
his dogs, his gaming and---- Why, it is hardly a year since I took off
from Dover that poor Lucy Barton and her brat, after the poor thing
suffering imprisonment in the Tower for his sake!"
"The child's a noble child," said Walter; "but the mother's a sad
reprobate, swears and drinks like a trooper."
"My mother is a woman," exclaimed little Robin, with great gravity,
poising a mutton-bone between his fingers, to arrive at which Crisp was
making extraordinary efforts,--"and I can't deny that I've a sort of
love, though it be a love without hope, for a very pretty girl, a woman
also: now this being the case, I'm not fond of hearing women reflected
on; for when they're young, they're the delight of our eyes; and when
they're old, they're useful, though a trifle crabbed, but still useful;
and a house without a woman would be like--like----"
"Robin at fault!" said Dalton: "you've given me many a comparison, and
now I'll lend you one--a bell without a clapper; won't that do, Robin?"
Robin shook his head.--"Ay, Robin! Robin! you're right, after all. If it
were not for a woman, I'd never set foot on shore again: but I'm proud
of my little Barbara; and all the fine things you tell me of her, Robin,
make me still prouder;--her mother all over. I often think how happy I
shall be to call her daughter, when she won't be ashamed to own me: God
help me!"--and be it noted that Dalton crossed himself as he spoke--"God
help me! I often think that if ever I gain salvation, it will be through
the prayers of that girl. Would that she had been brought up in her
mother's way!"
"What would old Noll say to that papistical sign, master?" inquired
Robin.
"A plague on you and old Noll too! I never get a bit up towards heaven,
that something doesn't pull me back again."