human
Inside and outside, all look alive! cried this gentleman, running to and fro:
gpt
Gracie will be home; Miss Grace, I mean; and not a bit of fire in the drawing-room grate! No Christmas-boxes for any of you sluts! Now, I did not mean that, Mary, as you might know. Inside the women, and outside the men--now, what is this paper for, my dear?
human
That there Cripps, sir, have a sent 'un in. He be gettin' so pertikular!
gpt
Quite right. Quite right. Business is business. No man can be too particular. Let him sit down and have a pint of ale. He wants me to sign this paper, does he? Very well; tell him to come next week. My fingers are cramped with the wind. Tell Cripps--now, don't you be in such a hurry, Mary; Cripps is not a marrying man.
human
As if I would touch him with a pair of tongs, sir! A Hookham to have a Cripps, sir!--a man who always smells as if he had been a-combing of a horse!
gpt
Ah, poor Mary, the grapes are sour. Tell bachelor Cripps to send in the bag. And bring me the little truck-basket, Mary; I dare say that will hold them. Just in time, they are only just in time. To-morrow would have been a day too late.