Page:Francesca Carrara 2.pdf/195

192 of that quality in which each was most deficient, and thus the match originated—or whether the state of quietude comes on after marriage, exertion on both sides being discovered to be a superfluity,—is really too profound an investigation; but the fact is certain, that the keen-tongued, quick-witted, bustling wife is always united to the slow, silent, and quiet husband.

This proper order of things was duly observed at the Sun—the Crown it had been, but this was too loyal an emblem now that England was under a Protector, instead of a King; and the sign had accordingly been taken down. The host proposed divers puritanical fancies—nay, once hinted at a head of Cromwell himself; but the hostess overruled all these proposals, and stood firm by the Sun.

"Nobody," as she justly observed, "Has any particular right to the sun, and it can therefore offend nobody; and though your cavaliers now-a-days don't wear their loyalty like a feather in their cap, seeing that few wear feathers; still there are many of our customers, and good ones too, who would scruple even at canary, if Cromwell stood at the door to bid them welcome."

These reasons convinced the landlord, and, indeed, he would have been convinced without