human
Worsted stockings four-and-sixpence! cried Temperance.
gpt
What a sinful price to pay! And I declare if they ask not three shillings and fourpence for a quarter of veal! Why, I mind the time when in Keswick it was but sixteen pence. Truly, if things wax higher in price than now they are, it shall be an hard matter to live. This very morrow was I asked a shilling for a calf's head of the butcher, and eightpence for a lemon of the costard-monger, whereat I promise you I fumed a bit; but when it came to threepence apiece for chickens,--Lancaster and Derby! It shall cost us here ever so much more to live.
human
It shall not, said Hans.
gpt
There be five acres of garden, and save for foreign fruits and spices, you shall ask little of the costard-monger shortly.
human
But who is to dig and dress it? moaned Faith.
gpt
Aubrey cannot, all the day with his Lord, even if he were not away o' nights: and Charity shall have too much to do.
human
I have two hands, Madam, answered Hans,
gpt
Me!
human
Right good for you! said her sister.
gpt
I'll not help at that work; I shall leave it for you. As to foreign fruits and spices, we'll have none of them, save now and then a lemon for the Lady Lettice--she loves the flavour, and we'll not have her go short of comforts--but for all else, I make no 'count of your foreign spice. Rosemary, thyme, mint, savoury, fennel, and carraway be spice enough for any man, and a deal better than all your far-fetched maces, and nutmegs, and peppers, that be fetched over here but to fetch the money out of folks' pockets: and wormwood and currant wine are every bit as good, and a deal wholesomer, than all your sherris-sack and Portingale rubbish. Hans, lad, let's have a currant-bush or two in that garden; I can make currant wine with any, though I say it, and gooseberry too. I make no count of your foreign frumps and fiddlements. What's all your Champagne but just gooseberry with a French name to it? and how can that make it any sweeter? I'll be bounden half of it is made of gooseberries, if folks might but know. And as to your Rhenish and claret, and such stuff, I would not give a penny for the lot--I'd as soon have a quart of alegar. Nay, nay! we are honest English men and women, and let us live like it.
human
But, Temperance, my dear, suggested Lady Louvaine, with a smile,
gpt
Nay, come! responded Temperance;
human
Parsley! said Lady Louvaine, smiling again.
gpt
Why, Temperance, that came first into England from Italy the year Anstace was born--the second of King Edward.
human
Dear heart, did it so? quoth she.
gpt
And must not we have so much as a cabbage or a sprig of sweet marjoram?
human
Sweet marjoram came in when thou wert a babe, Temperance; and I have heard my mother say that cabbages were brought hither from Flanders the year my sister Edith was born. She was five years elder than I, and died in the cradle.
gpt
Well! concluded Temperance,
human
Ay, that mayest thou, and honey too.