DOI Heft:
October 17, 1874
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16939#0171
164
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[October 17, 1874.
WHAT WE ARE COMING TO.
Swell Keeper. “There, My Lords! I have any Number of Birds for you, and you’ll find them quite Tame !”
“ Society, Friendship, and Love,” and I whispered to myself those
beautiful lines—
“ 0! had I the wings of a dove,
How soon would I taste them again! ”
Just then I heard a sound close to me. I could not make out, at
first, whether it was a sigh, or whether it was somebody clearing
his throat; hut, when I turned round, I saw a soldier smoking, so I
suppose it wasn’t a sigh. He was leaning against the wall, with only
his side face turned to me, but I could make out, at a glance, that
he wasn’t at all like John. He was not to say tall; and John was
six foot one. John once took the second prize in a competitive
examination of the Footmen of the Hpper Classes, which was held at
the International Exhibition, and it was thought that he would have
had the first prize, if he had brushed up his top hair in the way I
wanted him to. The soldier wasn’t stout, either, hut there was a
something noble in the way he leant against the wall, with his head
a little turned up to the sky, as if he were considering which star he
should go to first, which reminded me of a poem Grandmother and
Aunts used to tell me—when they had made me cry, by calling me
a little under-sized upper-crust, and wanted to comfort me—and
which ended with these lovely words :—
“ I would be measured by my soul!
Mind is the standard of the man.”
Now I never could think much of John’s mind since I found he
had set it on Mary.
s°l<lier had a sweet uniform, something like that of our
Militia, only the cut and the colour of it were different. He had a
beautiful pale blue tunic, magenta-coloured trousers, white shoes
and gaiters, and worsted epaulets to match the trousers. I have
never been able to recollect whether he turned round before I
coughed, or whether I coughed before he turned round; but, any-
how, he did turn round, and looked me full in the face. I could
see, then, that his clothes were made very tight in the waist, and
Ve-Iu 'T* 1.(ie1and, l°ose across the hips; and, as he stood before me,
with his hands on his hips, one leg a little advanced, his chest
thrown forward his head a little tilted back, and his cap just
cocked on one side, I thought I had never seen a finer outline of a
man. He looked at me, until I thought 1 should sink into the
earth, and then he said, in a voice that was hoarse with emotion,
“ Cr-r-re noni de pipe, quelle bonne pate de femme ! ”
Every word that he said sank into my soul, and, by recollecting it
and asking Madame Pichou about it afterwards, I was able to get
it written down all right, and to make out, that he was swearing by
his pipe—which is the most sacred oath a French Soldier has—that
I was a very good-looking woman. Well, I daresay I should have
believed him even if he hadn’t sworn it. I had no time to answer
him, for, just then, our people in the drawing-room took one of
their whims that they wanted something, and I had to answer the
bell. I came out again afterwards, but he was gone. No doubt he
thought I was offended with him. When I sat down in the kitchen
with Cook, she looked at me and said, “ Why, Elizabeth, whatever
has come over you ? You look as if you had seen John ! ”
“Nonsense! ” I said. “ Nonsense, Cook! You ought to know
better, after all you’ve gone through, than to put such notions into
a young girl’s head. Why should I think of them as don’t think
of me ? ”
“ Well,” she said, “ perhaps it’s the air. I feel rather cheerful
myself to-night. I hear that pigs are very scarce, and that lard
will he dear, so that there is some hope for dripping.” Which was
her usual way of looking at things.
A Change of Occupation.
It is gratifying to find that our domestics have leisure to devote
to the study of games involving a considerable amount of scientific
skill. The fruits of their industry are beginning to show them-
selves, if Cook on Billiards may be accepted as a proof.
SMOKING AND FUMIGATING.
Mr. Spurgeon lately in defence of moderate smoking, declared
that he smoked to a devotional purpose. Yery possibly. The
Ritualists may defend their use of incense on the same ground. It
is as well to be fair.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[October 17, 1874.
WHAT WE ARE COMING TO.
Swell Keeper. “There, My Lords! I have any Number of Birds for you, and you’ll find them quite Tame !”
“ Society, Friendship, and Love,” and I whispered to myself those
beautiful lines—
“ 0! had I the wings of a dove,
How soon would I taste them again! ”
Just then I heard a sound close to me. I could not make out, at
first, whether it was a sigh, or whether it was somebody clearing
his throat; hut, when I turned round, I saw a soldier smoking, so I
suppose it wasn’t a sigh. He was leaning against the wall, with only
his side face turned to me, but I could make out, at a glance, that
he wasn’t at all like John. He was not to say tall; and John was
six foot one. John once took the second prize in a competitive
examination of the Footmen of the Hpper Classes, which was held at
the International Exhibition, and it was thought that he would have
had the first prize, if he had brushed up his top hair in the way I
wanted him to. The soldier wasn’t stout, either, hut there was a
something noble in the way he leant against the wall, with his head
a little turned up to the sky, as if he were considering which star he
should go to first, which reminded me of a poem Grandmother and
Aunts used to tell me—when they had made me cry, by calling me
a little under-sized upper-crust, and wanted to comfort me—and
which ended with these lovely words :—
“ I would be measured by my soul!
Mind is the standard of the man.”
Now I never could think much of John’s mind since I found he
had set it on Mary.
s°l<lier had a sweet uniform, something like that of our
Militia, only the cut and the colour of it were different. He had a
beautiful pale blue tunic, magenta-coloured trousers, white shoes
and gaiters, and worsted epaulets to match the trousers. I have
never been able to recollect whether he turned round before I
coughed, or whether I coughed before he turned round; but, any-
how, he did turn round, and looked me full in the face. I could
see, then, that his clothes were made very tight in the waist, and
Ve-Iu 'T* 1.(ie1and, l°ose across the hips; and, as he stood before me,
with his hands on his hips, one leg a little advanced, his chest
thrown forward his head a little tilted back, and his cap just
cocked on one side, I thought I had never seen a finer outline of a
man. He looked at me, until I thought 1 should sink into the
earth, and then he said, in a voice that was hoarse with emotion,
“ Cr-r-re noni de pipe, quelle bonne pate de femme ! ”
Every word that he said sank into my soul, and, by recollecting it
and asking Madame Pichou about it afterwards, I was able to get
it written down all right, and to make out, that he was swearing by
his pipe—which is the most sacred oath a French Soldier has—that
I was a very good-looking woman. Well, I daresay I should have
believed him even if he hadn’t sworn it. I had no time to answer
him, for, just then, our people in the drawing-room took one of
their whims that they wanted something, and I had to answer the
bell. I came out again afterwards, but he was gone. No doubt he
thought I was offended with him. When I sat down in the kitchen
with Cook, she looked at me and said, “ Why, Elizabeth, whatever
has come over you ? You look as if you had seen John ! ”
“Nonsense! ” I said. “ Nonsense, Cook! You ought to know
better, after all you’ve gone through, than to put such notions into
a young girl’s head. Why should I think of them as don’t think
of me ? ”
“ Well,” she said, “ perhaps it’s the air. I feel rather cheerful
myself to-night. I hear that pigs are very scarce, and that lard
will he dear, so that there is some hope for dripping.” Which was
her usual way of looking at things.
A Change of Occupation.
It is gratifying to find that our domestics have leisure to devote
to the study of games involving a considerable amount of scientific
skill. The fruits of their industry are beginning to show them-
selves, if Cook on Billiards may be accepted as a proof.
SMOKING AND FUMIGATING.
Mr. Spurgeon lately in defence of moderate smoking, declared
that he smoked to a devotional purpose. Yery possibly. The
Ritualists may defend their use of incense on the same ground. It
is as well to be fair.