SCENE IV. ~The Word~. - Miss Bouncer discovered with her camera,
arranging her photographic chemicals. She soliloquizes: "There! now,
all is ready for my sitter." She calls the footman (Mr. Verdant
Green), and says, "John, you may show the Lady Fitz-Canute upstairs."
The footman shows in Miss Honeywood, dressed in an antiquated bonnet
and mantle, waving a huge fan. John gives her a chair, into which
she drops, exclaiming, "What an insufferable toil it is to ascend to
these elevated Photographic rooms;" and makes good use of her fan.
Miss Bouncer then fixes the focus of her camera, and begs the Lady
Fitz-Canute to sit perfectly still, and to call up an agreeable smile
to her face. Miss Honeywood thereupon disposes her face in ludicrous
"wreathed smiles;" and Miss Bouncer's head disappears under the velvet
hood of the camera. "I am afraid," at length says Miss Bouncer, "I
am afraid that I shall not be able to succeed in taking a likeness of
your ladyship this morning." "And why, pray?" asks her ladyship with
haughty surprise. "Because it is a gloomy day," replies the
Photographer, "and much depends upon the rays of light." "Then
procure the rays of light!" "That is more than I can do." "Indeed!
I suppose if the Lady Fitz-Canute wishes for the rays of light, and
condescends to pay for the rays of light, she can obtain the rays of
light." Miss Bouncer considers this too ~exigeant~, and puts her
sitter off by promising to complete a most fascinating portrait of
her on some more favourable day. Lady Fitz-Canute appears to be
somewhat mollified at this, and is graciously pleased to observe,
"Then I will undergo the fatigue of ascending to these elevated
Photographic-rooms at some future period. But, mind, when I next
come, that you procure the rays of light!" So she is shown out by
Mr. Verdant Green, and the folding-doors are closed amid applause,
and the audience distract themselves with guesses as to the word.
"Photograph" is a general favourite, but is found not to agree with
the three first scenes, although much ingenuity is expended in
endeavouring to make them fit the word. The Curate makes a headlong
rush at the word "Daguerreotype," and is confident that he has solved
the problem, until he is informed that it is a word of more than
three syllables. Charles Larkyns has already whispered the word to
Mary Green; but they keep their discovery to themselves. At length,
the Revd. Josiah Meek, in a moment of inspiration, hits upon the
word, and proclaims it to be CALOTYPE ("Call - oh! - type;") upon
which Mr. Alfred Brindle declares to Miss Fanny Green that
[200 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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