Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 9).pdf/133



was like the momentary contest in the moist eye-lids of an April morning, "Whether Bridget should laugh or cry."

She snatch'd up a rolling-pin—'twas ten to one, she had laugh'd—

She laid it down—she cried; and had one single tear of 'em but tasted of bitterness, full sorrowful would the Corporal's heart have been that he had used the argument; but the Corporal understood the sex, a quart major to a terce at least, better, than my uncle Toby, and accordingly he assailed Mrs. Bridget after this manner.