"---- CLEON, Esq.,
"Bon Repos, Windermere."
After writing and despatching the above epistle, over the composition of
which he chuckled to himself several times, Mr. Madgin was obliged to
wait, with what contentment was possible to him, the receipt of a
communication from his son. But one day passed after another without
bringing news from Bon Repos, till Mr. Madgin grew fearful that some
disaster had befallen both James and his scheme. At length he made up
his mind to wait two days longer, and should no letter come within that
time, to start at once for Windermere. Fortunately his anxiety was
relieved and the journey rendered unnecessary by the receipt, next day,
of a long letter from his son. It was Mirpah who took it from the
postman's hand, and Mirpah took it to her father in high glee. She knew
the writing and deciphered the post-mark. For once in his life Mr.
Madgin was too agitated to read. He put his hand to his side, and
motioned Mirpah to open the letter.
"Read it," he said in a husky voice, as she was about to hand it to him.
So Mirpah sat down near her father and read what follows:--
"Bon Repos, July
"(some date, but I'll be hanged if I know what).
"MY DEAR DAD,--In some rustic nook reclining, silken
tresses softly twining, Far-off bells so faintly ringing, While we
list the blackbird singing, Merrily his roundelay. There! I
composed those lines this morning during the process of shaving. I
don't think they are very bad. I put them at the beginning of my
letter so as to make sure that you will read them, a process of
which I might reasonably be doubtful had I left them for the fag
end of my communication. Learn, sir, that you have a son who is a
born poet!!!
"But now to business.
"Don't hurry over my letter, dear dad; don't run away with the idea
that I have any grand discovery to lay before you. My epistle will
be merely a record of trifles and commonplaces, and that simply
from the fact that I have nothing better to write about. To me, at
least, they seem nothing but trifles. For you they may possess an
occult significance of which I know nothing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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