Page:Mrs Caudle's curtain lectures.djvu/187

 Rh "I dare say now, you'd have been delighted to smuggle for Miss Prettyman? Silk stockings become her!

"You wish Miss Prettyman was in the moon?

"Not you, Mr. Caudle; that's only your art—your hypocrisy. A nice person too she'd be for the moon: it would be none the brighter for her being in it, I know. And when you saw the Custom House officers look at me, as though they were piercing me through, what was your conduct? Shameful. You twittered about and fidgeted, and flushed up as if I really was a smuggler.

"So I was?

"What had that to do with it? It wasn't the part of a husband, I think, to fidget in that way, and show it.

"You couldn't help it?

"Humph! And you call yourself a person of strong mind, I believe? One of the lords of the creation! Ha! ha! couldn't help it!

"But I may do all I can to save the money, and this is always my reward. Yes, Mr. Caudle; I shall save a great deal.

"How much?

"I sha'n't tell you: I know your meanness—you'd want to stop it out of the house allowance. No: it's