let it fall.

We thought, Mr. Trim, it had been more in the middle,--said Mrs.
Bridget--

That would have undone us for ever--said the corporal.

--And left my poor mistress undone too, said Bridget.

The corporal made no reply to the repartee, but by giving Mrs. Bridget a
kiss.

Come--come--said Bridget--holding the palm of her left hand parallel to
the plane of the horizon, and sliding the fingers of the other over it,
in a way which could not have been done, had there been the least wart
or protruberance--'Tis every syllable of it false, cried the corporal,
before she had half finished the sentence--

--I know it to be fact, said Bridget, from credible witnesses.

--Upon my honour, said the corporal, laying his hand upon his heart,
and blushing, as he spoke, with honest resentment--'tis a story, Mrs.
Bridget, as false as hell--Not, said Bridget, interrupting him, that
either I or my mistress care a halfpenny about it, whether 'tis so or
no--only that when one is married, one would chuse to have such a thing
by one at least--

It was somewhat unfortunate for Mrs. Bridget, that she had begun the
attack with her manual exercise; for the corporal instantly....

Chapter 4.LXXXVIII.

It was like the momentary contest in the moist eye-lids of an April
morning, 'Whether Bridget should laugh or cry.'

She snatch'd up a rolling-pin--'twas ten to one, she had laugh'd--

She laid it down--she cried; and had one single tear of 'em but tasted
of bitterness, full sorrowful would the corporal's heart have been that
he had used the argument; but the corporal understood the sex, a quart
major to a terce at least, better than my uncle Toby, and accordingly he
assailed Mrs. Bridget after this manner.

I know, Mrs. Bridget, said the corporal, giving her a most respectful
kiss, that thou art good and modest by nature, and art withal so
generous a girl in thyself, that, if I know thee rightly, thou would'st
not wound an insect, much less the honour of so gallant and worthy a
soul as my master, wast thou sure to be made a countess of--but thou
hast been set on, and deluded, dear Bridget, as is often a woman's case,
'to please others more than themselves--'

Bridget's eyes poured down at the sensations the corporal excited.

--Tell me--tell me, then, my dear Bridget, continued the corporal,
taking hold of her hand, which hung down dead by her side,--and giving a
second kiss--whose suspicion has misled thee?

Bridget s