Tea. The reference is to the gossip held by some of the womenkind over their “cups which cheer but not inebriate.” Also called “Chatter-broth.”
“‘I proposed to my venerated visitor, to summon my … housekeeper … with the tea-equipage; but he rejected my proposal with disdain… .ʹ ‘No scandal-broth,ʹ he exclaimed, ‘No unideaʹd woman’s chatter for me.ʹ”—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (Prefatory letter).
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