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CHAPTER VI . My lady’s tongue is like the meadow blades , That cut you stroking them with idle hand . Nice cutting is her function : she divides With spiritual edge the millet - seed , And makes intangible savings . As Mr . Casaubon’s carriage was passing out of the gateway , it arrested the entrance of a pony phaeton driven by a lady with a servant seated behind . It was doubtful whether the recognition had been mutual , for Mr . Casaubon was looking absently before him ; but the lady was quick - eyed , and threw a nod and a “ How do you do ? ” in the nick of time . In spite of her shabby bonnet and very old Indian shawl , it was plain that the lodge - keeper regarded her as an important personage , from the low curtsy which was dropped on the entrance of the small phaeton . “ Well , Mrs . Fitchett , how are your fowls laying now ? ” said the high - colored , dark - eyed lady , with the clearest chiselled utterance . “ Pretty well for laying , madam , but they’ve ta’en to eating their eggs : I’ve no peace o ’ mind with ’ em at all . ” “ Oh , the cannibals ! Better sell them cheap at once . What will you sell them a couple ? One can’t eat fowls of a bad character at a high price . ” “ Well , madam , half - a - crown : I couldn’t let ’ em go , not under . ” “ Half - a - crown , these times ! Come now — for the Rector’s chicken - broth on a Sunday . He has consumed all ours that I can spare . You are half paid with the sermon , Mrs . Fitchett , remember that . Take a pair of tumbler - pigeons for them — little beauties . You must come and see them . You have no tumblers among your pigeons . ” “ Well , madam , Master Fitchett shall go and see ’ em after work . He’s very hot on new sorts ; to oblige you . ” “ Oblige me ! It will be the best bargain he ever made . A pair of church pigeons for a couple of wicked Spanish fowls that eat their own eggs ! Don’t you and Fitchett boast too much , that is all ! ” The phaeton was driven onwards with the last words , leaving Mrs . Fitchett laughing and shaking her head slowly , with an interjectional “ Surely , surely ! ” — from which it might be inferred that she would have found the country - side somewhat duller if the Rector’s lady had been less free - spoken and less of a skinflint . Indeed , both the farmers and laborers in the parishes of Freshitt and Tipton would have felt a sad lack of conversation but for the stories about what Mrs . Cadwallader said and did : a lady of immeasurably high birth , descended , as it were , from unknown earls , dim as the crowd of heroic shades — who pleaded poverty , pared down prices , and cut jokes in the most companionable manner , though with a turn of tongue that let you know who she was . Such a lady gave a neighborliness to both rank and religion , and mitigated the bitterness of uncommuted tithe . A much more exemplary character with an infusion of sour dignity would not have furthered their comprehension of the Thirty - nine Articles , and would have been less socially uniting . Mr . Brooke , seeing Mrs . Cadwallader’s merits from a different point of view , winced a little when her name was announced in the library , where he was sitting alone .
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