Note 229 — Chapter IX

The Irish girls outdid the American (i. 385) in one particular. He wrote to his sister-in-law: "Every night, by the bye, since I have been in Ireland, the ladies have beguiled John out of the bouquet from my coat; and yesterday morning, as I had showered the leaves from my geranium in reading Little Dombey, they mounted the platform after I was gone, and picked them all up as a keepsake." A few days earlier he had written to the same correspondent: "The papers are full of remarks upon my white tie, and describe it as being of enormous size, which is a wonderful delusion; because, as you very well know, it is a small tie. Generally, I am happy to report, the Emerald press is in favour of my appearance, and likes my eyes. But one gentleman comes out with a letter at Cork, wherein he says that although only 46, I look like an old man."