CURIOUS ACCIDENT TO MRS. RAMSBOTHAM.
Reading edition
Strolling through Pimlico the other day Mrs. R. was attracted by evidence of a sale by auction going forward in one of the residences in that desirable quarter. Having half an hour to spare she thought she would look in. "I was quite surprised," she writes to her son, "when I entered the room to see a gentleman standing in a pulpit which I knew was Mr. Pipchose, leastway, his whiskers were not so mutton-choppy; but I could not mistake him, though meeting him only once at tea at Mrs. Brown's where he was very pressing with the muffins. He looked at me in just the same meaning way as when he said, 'Mrs. Ram. won't you take another piece of sugar, though as I know it's carrying coals to Newcastle?' I'm not above recognising my friends, wherever I meet them, and gave him a friendly nod, and before I knew where I was, I found I had bought for £3 9s. 6d. a wool mattress; a pair of tongs (rather bent); a barometer (with the quicksilver missing); a small iron bedstead; a set of tea-things (mostly cracked); an armchair, and a sofa warranted hair-stuffed, but certainly having only three legs. It wasn't Mr. Pipchose at all, as I might have known if I had taken another look at his whiskers, but only a forward auctioneer."
"The Chinese Government," observed the City Times last week, "is seeking new channels for money." Decidedly China is in straits, and will soon be apparently quite at sea.
TO MELENDA. (A Repentance in Triolets.) I swore to you, dear, there was mistletoe there, Though I knew all the time there was none. As I stole a sweet kiss from you out on the stair I swore to you, dear, there was mistletoe there. I have plenty of sins on my soul, dear, to bear, But at least I've confessed now to one. I swore to you, dear, there was mistletoe there Though I knew all the time there was none. I am sorry. I never will do it again, And please am I fully forgiven? In the future from falsehood I mean to refrain. I am sorry. I never will do it again, But look at yourself in your glass to explain Why to mistletoe tale I was driven. I am sorry. I never will do it again, And please am I fully forgiven? There's an answer you'll send if you're thoroughly kind, That will make me feel free from all blame. I hope you'll be glad, dear Melenda, to find There's an answer you'll send if you're thoroughly kind. It's this, "Though the mistletoe was but a blind, Still with none I'd have done just the same." There's the answer you'll send if you're thoroughly kind That will make me feel free from all blame.
The Baron's P.S.—The Border Waverley, brought out by Nimmo, and edited by Andrew Lang, is now concluded, and a fine set of volumes it makes. No better collection of books as a Christmas present for anyone with a regard to a future of literary enjoyment.
Nos omnesne laudamus Nimmo? Et respondit Echo: "Immo."
"Ha! ha! I don't go to a Westminster Play for nothing quoth the Baron;" though he added sotto voce, "Yes I do though, as I'm a guest."