Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day PeopleDickens, Charles
General
Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People
Dickens, Charles
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
When the church-party return to lunch, grandpapa produces a small sprig
of mistletoe from his pocket, and tempts the boys to kiss their little
cousins under it—a proceeding which affords both the boys and the old
gentleman unlimited satisfaction, but which rather outrages
grandmamma’s ideas of decorum, until grandpapa says, that when he was
just thirteen years and three months old, _he_ kissed grandmamma under
a mistletoe too, on which the children clap their hands, and laugh very
heartily, as do aunt George and uncle George; and grandmamma looks
pleased, and says, with a benevolent smile, that grandpapa was an
impudent young dog, on which the children laugh very heartily again,
and grandpapa more heartily than any of them.
But all these diversions are nothing to the subsequent excitement when
grandmamma in a high cap, and slate-coloured silk gown; and grandpapa
with a beautifully plaited shirt-frill, and white neckerchief; seat
themselves on one side of the drawing-room fire, with uncle George’s
children and little cousins innumerable, seated in the front, waiting
the arrival of the expected visitors. Suddenly a hackney-coach is heard
to stop, and uncle George, who has been looking out of the window,
exclaims ‘Here’s Jane!’ on which the children rush to the door, and
helter-skelter down-stairs; and uncle Robert and aunt Jane, and the
dear little baby, and the nurse, and the whole party, are ushered
up-stairs amidst tumultuous shouts of ‘Oh, my!’ from the children, and
frequently repeated warnings not to hurt baby from the nurse. And
grandpapa takes the child, and grandmamma kisses her daughter, and the
confusion of this first entry has scarcely subsided, when some other
aunts and uncles with more cousins arrive, and the grown-up cousins
flirt with each other, and so do the little cousins too, for that
matter, and nothing is to be heard but a confused din of talking,
laughing, and merriment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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