Tom cat

There was but one a real maid, / And ſhe ſo very ugly, that / You’d take her for a great Tom cat, / And therefore ſhe could never hire / A man that would attempt to try her.

“How you talk!” / “Talk, miss! It’s enough to make a Tom cat talk French grammar, only to see how she tosses her head,” replied the handmaid.

The battle is so nearly equal, however, that whenever the two gentlemen meet they glare at each other like black Tom cats in a strange garret.