Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 9).pdf/102

 vow, I would give him a four and twenty sous piece, when I got to Moulins

And who is poor Maria? said I.

The love and pity of all the villages around us; said the postillion—it is but three years ago, that the sun did not shine upon so fair, so quick-witted and amiable a maid; and better fate did Maria deserve, than to have her Banns forbid, by the intrigues of the curate of the parish who published them—

He was going on, when Maria, who had made a short pause, put the pipe to her mouth and began the air again