Pencil Sketches; or, Outlines of Character and MannersLeslie, Eliza
General
Pencil Sketches; or, Outlines of Character and Manners
Leslie, Eliza
Humorous stories; Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
They were scarcely seated on the deck of the steamboat, when Orinda
opened her album to look for the inspirations of Jenkins's Muse. She
found no verses. But on the very page consecrated by the hand of La
Fayette, and immediately under the autograph of the hero, was written,
in an awkward school-boy character, the name of Jeremiah Jenkins.
THE SET OF CHINA.
"How thrive the beauties of the graphic art?"--PETER PINDAR.
"Mr. Gummage," said Mrs. Atmore, as she entered a certain
drawing-school, at that time the most fashionable in Philadelphia, "I
have brought you a new pupil, my daughter, Miss Marianne Atmore. Have
you a vacancy?"
"Why, I can't say that I have," replied Mr. Gummage; "I never have
vacancies."
"I am very sorry to hear it," said Mrs. Atmore; and Miss Marianne, a
tall, handsome girl of fifteen, looked disappointed.
"But perhaps I _could_ strain a point, and find a place for her,"
resumed Mr. Gummage, who knew very well that he never had the smallest
idea of limiting the number of his pupils, and that if twenty more were
to apply, he would take them every one, however full his school might
be.
"Do, pray, Mr. Gummage," said Mrs. Atmore; "do try and make an exertion
to admit my daughter; I shall regard it as a particular favour."
"Well, I believe she may come," replied Gummage: "I suppose I can take
her. Has she any turn for drawing?"
"I don't know," answered Mrs. Atmore; "she has never tried."
"So much the better," said Gummage; "I like girls that have never tried;
they are much more manageable than those that have been scratching and
daubing at home all their lives."
Mr. Gummage was no gentleman, either in appearance or manner. But he
passed for a genius among those who knew nothing of that ill-understood
race. He had a hooked nose that turned to the right, and a crooked mouth
that turned to the left--his face being very much out of drawing,--and
he had two round eyes that in colour and expression resembled two
hazel-nuts. His lips were "pea-green and blue," from the habit of
putting the brushes into his mouth when they were overcharged with
colour. He took snuff illimitably, and generally carried half a dozen
handkerchiefs, some of which, however, were to wrap his dinner in, as he
conveyed it from market in his capacious pockets; others, as he said,
were "to wipe the girl's saucers."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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