Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
authoress, "had a physiognomy of its own." Not very observable when
quiescent, in speaking it became curiously expressive, and, at times,
enormously elongated or strangely curvilinear. It had also, under the
same circumstances, another peculiarity. It was a travelling mouth:
yes, it travelled. When it talked, it was constantly shifting its
position, not only up and down, but sideways and obliquely. In the
utterance of a single sentence, it would traverse the whole extent of
his face. It was now high, now low; now on this side, now on that.
It ranged, at will, the whole breadth of his countenance from ear to
ear; so that at times he was all mouth on one side of his face, and no
mouth on the other. This gave him the additional advantage, that his
profile could maintain a dialogue with you, as well as another man's
full face. When conversing with his lady-love, side by side at the
dinner-table, he never turned to look at her--he had no need. Viewing
her with one eye, like a duck, in tones of deferential tenderness he
addressed her from the cheek that was nearest hers. His perfectly
well-bred deportment, nay, elegance of manner, his inexhaustible fund
of good humour, and amusing waggery, did not, I am sorry to say,
prevent his acquiring, and bearing during the voyage, the name of
Joey: allusive, I presume, to the feats of mouth performed in those
days by the far-famed Grimaldi. The malevolent suspicion, that a title
so derogatory was any suggestion of mine, I scorn to notice. To this,
however, I do confess, that, ere we had been four-and-twenty hours at
sea, as a slight token of my profound veneration for the stateliest
and the loveliest of Erin's daughters, I proposed, and it was carried
unanimously, that she should bear the name of Juno. And, the colonel
having pronounced her brother a perfect Apollo, I also proposed,
and it was also carried unanimously, that we should call him Mr
Belvidere. But I am anticipating. On the practice of giving sobriquets,
so common at headquarters, much remains to be said hereafter. As
to the maid-servant, she was a quiet little Irishwoman of about
five-and-thirty, in a duffle cloak with pink bows, snug straw bonnet
neatly tied under her chin with a pink ribbon, and snow-white cotton
stockings, exhibiting a rather broad instep, which led me to conjecture
that she had not always worn shoes. Her mistress called her Kitty, and
that name she was allowed to keep, as no one on board thought he could
improve it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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