ed so, that
Hirsch, the courier, said he should retire from monsieur's service, as
he was not hired by Lady Kicklebury: that Bowman gave warning, and told
another footman in the building that he wouldn't stand the old cat no
longer, blow him if he would: that the maid (who was a Kicklebury girl)
and Fanny cried: and that Mrs. Milliken's maid, Finch, complained to
her mistress, who ordered her husband to remonstrate with her mother.
Milliken remonstrated with his usual mildness, and, of course, was
routed by her ladyship. Mrs. Milliken said, "Give me the daggers," and
came to her husband's rescue. A battle royal ensued; the scared Milliken
hanging about his blessed Lavinia, and entreating and imploring her to
be calm. Mrs. Milliken WAS calm. She asserted her dignity as mistress
of her own family: as controller of her own household, as wife of her
adored husband; and she told her mamma, that with her or here she must
not interfere; that she knew her duty as a child: but that she also knew
it as a wife, as a-- The rest of the sentence was drowned, as Milliken,
rushing to her, called her his soul's angel, his adored blessing.

Lady Kicklebury remarked that Shakspeare was very right in stating how
much sharper than a thankless tooth it is to have a serpent child.

Mrs. Milliken said, the conversation could not be carried on in this
manner: that it was best her mamma should now know, once for all, that
the way in which she assumed the command at Pigeoncot was intolerable;
that all the servants had given warning, and it was with the greatest
difficulty they could be soothed: and that, as their living together
only led to quarrels and painful recriminations (the calling her, after
her forbearance, A SERPENT CHILD, was an expression which she would hope
to forgive and forget,) they had better part.

Lady Kicklebury wears a front, and, I make no doubt, a complete jasey;
or she certainly would have let down her back hair at this minute, so
overpowering were her feelings, and so bitter her indignation at her
daughter's black ingratitude. She intimated some of her sentiments, by
ejaculatory conjurations of evil. She hoped her daughter might NOT feel
what ingratitude was; that SHE might never have children to turn on her
and bring her to the grave with grief.

"Bring me to the grave with fiddlestick!" Mrs. Milliken said with some
asperity. "And, as we are going to part, mamma, and as Horace has paid
EVERYTHING on the journey as ye