Upon this, the whole house was set
upon me to examine me, and to press me to tell whether I was in love or
not, and with whom; but as I well might, I denied my being in love at
all.

They had on this occasion a squabble one day about me at table, that
had like to have put the whole family in an uproar, and for some time
did so. They happened to be all at table but the father; as for me, I
was ill, and in my chamber. At the beginning of the talk, which was
just as they had finished their dinner, the old gentlewoman, who had
sent me somewhat to eat, called her maid to go up and ask me if I would
have any more; but the maid brought down word I had not eaten half what
she had sent me already.

'Alas, says the old lady, 'that poor girl! I am afraid she will never
be well.'

'Well!' says the elder brother, 'how should Mrs. Betty be well? They
say she is in love.'

'I believe nothing of it,' says the old gentlewoman.

'I don't know,' says the eldest sister, 'what to say to it; they have
made such a rout about her being so handsome, and so charming, and I
know not what, and that in her hearing too, that has turned the
creature's head, I believe, and who knows what possessions may follow
such doings? For my part, I don't know what to make of it.'

'Why, sister, you must acknowledge she is very handsome,' says the
elder brother.

'Ay, and a great deal handsomer than you, sister,' says Robin, 'and
that's your mortification.'

'Well, well, that is not the question,' says his sister; 'that girl is
well enough, and she knows it well enough; she need not be told of it
to make her vain.'

'We are not talking of her being vain,' says the elder brother, 'but of
her being in love; it may be she is in love with herself; it seems my
sisters think so.'

'I would she was in love with me,' says Robin; 'I'd quickly put her out
of her pain.'

'What d'ye mean by that, son,' says the old lady; 'how can you talk so?'

'Why, madam,' says Robin, again, very honestly, 'do you think I'd let
the poor girl die for love, and of one that is near at hand to be had,
too?'

'Fie, brother!', says the second sister, 'how can you talk so? Would
you take a creature that has not a groat in the world?'

'Prithee, child,' says Robin, 'beauty's a portion, and good-humour with
it is a double portion; I wish thou hadst half her stock of both for
thy portion.' So there was her mouth stopped.

'I find,' says the eldest sister, 'if Betty is n