human
My friend Mr. Eves, Mrs. Pouncey,
gpt
How d’ye do, Mrs. Pouncey? said Eves, shaking hands.
human
Mr. Templeton has been telling me you’re the best cook in the three kingdoms. You know you did, Bob; don’t protest. He’s very hard to please, Mrs. Pouncey, very; and if he’s satisfied, you may be sure that a man of my humbler tastes will be absolutely bowled over.
gpt
Well, now, I declare I wouldn’t have thought it. Mr. Templeton have never said a single grumble, not one. He’s the best young man lodger as I’ve ever had, that I will say—no trouble at all!
human
Ah, Mrs. Pouncey! how many young men lodgers have you said the same thing about? Your last lodger, for instance, now, confess!
gpt
Mr. Noakes?
human
Ay, sure, that be the mayor’s name, and well I know it. But do ’ee take your soup, now, ’twill be cold, and cold soup lays heavy, not to speak o’ the nastiness, and the pork chops grilled to a cinder.
gpt
Jolly good soup, Bob, said Eves.
human
And pork chops! Splendid! The old dame is a treasure. I’ll get her to tell us about our worthy mayor.
gpt
Absolutely topping, Mrs. Pouncey! said Eves.
human
What on earth did your last lodger find to grumble at, if you treated him like this?
gpt
Lor’ bless ’ee, sir, he’d grumble at everything, pertickler at the bill. He’d want a penny took off here, and a penny there: and he would measure out his tea hisself, and cut his own rashers. I never did see the like.
human
And a friend of the mayor, too!
gpt
Ay, and more’n a friend, so it do seem. ’Tis said here and there ’twas a gentleman—gentleman, says I, but that’s the talk!—a gentleman from London as have Mr. Noakes in his pocket, so to speak it.
human
Really!
gpt
Ay. No wonder you be mazed, the mayor being such a terrible great man and all. Some folks do rise quick in the world, to be sure. ’Tis only a matter of two year since he came here, from no one knowed where, and ’a took up a big contrack with the camp for building huts, and running a canteen, I think they do call it, and I don’t know what all. Ay sure, he’ve his fingers in many a pie, but I warrant they’ll get burnt, they will!
human
But how did a stranger become mayor so quickly?
gpt
Why, being such a great man, they put him on the Council, and t’other councillors being little small men, he got over ’em, that’s what I say. Bless ’ee, he’d have got ’em to make him king, if so be there was kings out of London. Ah, he’ve a power of money! He bought this cottage that I’ve paid rent for regular this twenty year, and he telled me he’d raise the rent as soon as Parlyment will let him, if not before. And he made me take this Saunders man for twenty shillings a week, when I’ve never had less than twenty-five, never!