212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

A SHABBY GENTEEL STORY 59
pretty virtue new. It was only because your cloyed appetite was
long unused to this simple meat that you felt so keen a relish for
it; and I thought of you only the last blessed Saturday, at Mr.
Lovegrove's, " West India Tavern," Blackwall, where a company of
fifteen epicures, who had scorned the turtle, pooh-poohed the punch,
and sent away the whitebait, did suddenly and simultaneously make
a rush upon—a dish of beans and bacon. And if the assiduous
reader of novels will think upon some of the most celebrated works
of that species, which have lately appeared in this and other
countries, he will find, amidst much debauch of sentiment and
enervating dissipation of intellect, that the writers have from time
to time a returning appetite for innocence and freshness, and indulge
us with occasional repasts of beans and bacon. How long
Mr. Brandon remained by Miss Caroline's side I have no means of
judging; it is probable, however, that he stayed a much longer
time than was necessary for the mending of his black satin stock.
I believe, indeed, that he read to the ladies a great part of the
"Mysteries of Udolpho," over which they were engaged; and
interspersed his reading with many remarks of his own, both tender
and satirical. Whether he was in her company half-an-hour or four
hours, this is certain, that the time slipped away very swiftly with
poor Caroline ; and when a carriage drove up to the door, and shrill
voices were heard crying, "Becky!" "Carry!" and Rebecca the
maid starting up, cried, " Lor', here's missus !" and Brandon jumped
rather suddenly off the sofa, and fled up the stairs—when all these
events took place, I know Caroline felt very sad indeed, and opened
the door for her parents with a very heavy heart.
Swigby helped Miss Linda off the box with excessive tenderness.
Papa was bustling and roaring in high good-humour, and
called for "hot water and tumblers immediately." Mrs. Gann
was gracious ; and Miss Bell sulky, as she had good reason to be,
for she insisted upon taking the front seat in the carriage before
her sister, and had lost a husband by that very piece of obstinacy.
Mr. Fitch, as he entered, bestowed upon Caroline a heavy sigh
and a deep stare, and silently ascended to his own apartment. He
was lost in thought. The fact is, he was trying to remember some
verses regarding a violet, which he had made five years before, and
which he had somehow lost from among his papers. So he went
upstairs, muttering,
" A humble flower long since I pined
Upon a solitary plain _______ "