The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

As Tom, an' please your honour, had no business at that time with the Moorish girl, he passed on into the room beyond, to talk to the Jew's widow about love -- -- -and this pound of sausages; and being, as I have told your honour, an open cheery-hearted lad, with his character wrote in his looks and carriage, he took a chair, and without much apology, but with great civility at the same time, placed it close to her at the table, and sat down.

There is nothing so awkward, as courting a woman, an' please your honour, whilst she is making sausages -- -- -So Tom began a discourse upon them; first, gravely, -- -- "as how they were made -- -- -with what meats, herbs, and spices" -- Then a little gayly, -- as, "With what skins -- -- -and if they never burst -- -- -Whether the largest were not the best? " -- -- -and so on -- taking care only as he went along, to season what he had to say upon sausages, rather under than over; -- -- -that he might have room to act in -- -- -