Читать книгу Cherry & Violet: A Tale of the Great Plague онлайн

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This Comicality, which had cost my Father and Mark sundry Hours of evening Labour,—(I had made the Dresses,) drew Crowds of People to the Window, so as even to obstruct the Passage along the Bridge; and excited Peals of ironical Laughter; till, at length, Mirth proceeding to Mischief, Blows began to ensue among those who favoured opposite Sides. Then the Bridgewardens came with Constables and Weapons to quell the Disturbance, and an idle Fellow was set in the Cage, and another, with long Hair, put in the Stocks; and one or two of our Panes of Glass were broken; so that what began in Sport ended much too seriously; and my Father, finding he must yield to the Times, changed the Cavalier’s Placard into “See what you had better be,” and finally removed it altogether, saying he was nauseated with time-serving. But he persisted in wearing his own long Hair, come what would; which drew from the Reverend Master Blower that Similitude about the Trojan Horse, who, I suppose, persisted in wearing his Mane and long Tail after they had become Types of a Party. And when my Father was called in question for it by one of the Bridgewardens, and asked why he persevered in troubling Israel, he with his usual Spirit retorted upon him with, “How can a Tonsor be expected to hold with a Party that puts Pence into his Till instead of Shillings?” Whereupon the Bridgewarden called him a self-interested Demas, and said no more to him.

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