done me a great deal of wrong, and Mr.
Robert no service at all.

The old lady was fully satisfied, and kissed me, spoke cheerfully to
me, and bid me take care of my health and want for nothing, and so took
her leave. But when she came down she found the brother and all his
sisters together by the ears; they were angry, even to passion, at his
upbraiding them with their being homely, and having never had any
sweethearts, never having been asked the question, and their being so
forward as almost to ask first. He rallied them upon the subject of
Mrs. Betty; how pretty, how good-humoured, how she sung better then
they did, and danced better, and how much handsomer she was; and in
doing this he omitted no ill-natured thing that could vex them, and
indeed, pushed too hard upon them. The old lady came down in the
height of it, and to put a stop it to, told them all the discourse she
had had with me, and how I answered, that there was nothing between Mr.
Robert and I.

'She's wrong there,' says Robin, 'for if there was not a great deal
between us, we should be closer together than we are. I told her I
loved her hugely,' says he, 'but I could never make the jade believe I
was in earnest.' 'I do not know how you should,' says his mother;
'nobody in their senses could believe you were in earnest, to talk so
to a poor girl, whose circumstances you know so well.

'But prithee, son,' adds she, 'since you tell me that you could not
make her believe you were in earnest, what must we believe about it?
For you ramble so in your discourse, that nobody knows whether you are
in earnest or in jest; but as I find the girl, by your own confession,
has answered truly, I wish you would do so too, and tell me seriously,
so that I may depend upon it. Is there anything in it or no? Are you
in earnest or no? Are you distracted, indeed, or are you not? 'Tis a
weighty question, and I wish you would make us easy about it.'

'By my faith, madam,' says Robin, ''tis in vain to mince the matter or
tell any more lies about it; I am in earnest, as much as a man is
that's going to be hanged. If Mrs. Betty would say she loved me, and
that she would marry me, I'd have her tomorrow morning fasting, and
say, 'To have and to hold,' instead of eating my breakfast.'

'Well,' says the mother, 'then there's one son lost'; and she said it
in a very mournful tone, as one greatly concerned at it.

'I hope not, madam,' says Robin; 'no man is lost when a