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"And thus," comments Caudle, "according to my wife, she dear soul! couldn't have a satin gown the girls couldn't have new bonnets the water-rate must stand over Jack must get his death through a broken window our fire-insurance couldn't be paid, so that we should all fall victims to the devouring element we couldn't go to Margate, and Caroline would go to an early grave the dog would come home and bite us all mad the shutter would go banging for ever the soot would always fall the mice never let us have a wink of sleep thieves be always breaking in the house our dear Mary Anne be for ever left an unprotected maid, and with other evils falling upon us, all, all because I would go on lending five pounds!"
One afternoon the post brought side by side with a letter from lord Gartley, one in a strange-looking cramped hand, which Mrs. Raymount recognized. "What can Sarah be writing about?" she said, a sudden foreboding of evil crossing her mind. "The water-rate perhaps," answered Hester, opening her own letter as she withdrew to read it.
'Not a bit on it, replied the father; 'for the shepherd's water-rate, Sammy. 'The shepherd's water-rate! said Sam. 'Ay, replied Mr.
And we must have another Boulevard, old fellow; and we must settle that little dispute about Venetia; and we must do something for those unfortunate Poles, eh good dog?" and so on. The Captain went through the brief ceremonial as coolly as if it had been the settlement of a water-rate, and was angered by the tears that poor Mary Anne shed under her cheap black veil.
At home I am only Valentine Hawkehurst, with an ever-present consciousness that so many pages of copy are required from me within a given time, and that my son-and-heir is cutting his teeth, and making more fuss about it than I ever made about my teeth; and that the man about the water-rate is waiting to see me, please, and is desperately anxious about making-up his books; and that I have the dearest wife in Christendom, who opens my door, and puts her pretty head into my room once in half an hour to see how I am getting on, or to ask whether I want any more coals, or to borrow my ink to make-up her washing-book."
'Surely you don't want any consolation at such a moment? observed Nicholas. 'No, replied Mr Lillyvick, shaking his head nervously: 'no of course not. 'But how come you both here, if you're going to be married, Mr Lillyvick? asked Nicholas. 'Why, that's what I came to explain to you, replied the collector of water-rate. 'The fact is, we have thought it best to keep it secret from the family.
Lillyvick, who collected a water-rate, and who she fondly hoped, would make her children his heirs.
But, unhappily, neither was the tribute the sole tax which the crown exacted from its subjects, nor had the crown the sole right of exacting taxation. Persian subjects in many parts of the Empire paid, besides their tribute, a water-rate, which is expressly said to have been very productive.
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