towards K. I., but my youth and inexperience carried me away; and see
where they 've left me! Now that's an error nobody commits abroad; and
as to any one being married according to their inclination, it's quite
unheard of; and if they have less love, they have fewer disappointments,
and that same is something!
Talking of marriage brings me to Betty,--I suppose I mustn't say Betty
Cobb, now that she calls herself the Frau Taddy. Hasn't she made a nice
business of it! "They're fighting," as K. I. says, "like man and wife,
already!" The creature is only half human; and when he has gorged
himself with meat and drink, he sometimes sleeps for twenty-four, or
maybe thirty hours; and if there's not something ready for him when he
wakes up, his passion is dreadful. I 'm afraid of my life lest K. I.
should see the bill for his food, and told the landlord only to put down
his four regular meals, and that I 'd pay the rest, which I have managed
to do, up to this, by disposing of K. I.'s wearing-apparel. And would
you believe it that the beast has already eaten a brown surtout, two
waistcoats, and three pairs of kerseymere shorts and gaiters, not to say
a spencer that he had for his lunch, and a mackintosh cape that he took
the other night before going to bed! Betty is always crying from his bad
usage, and consequently of no earthly use to any one; but if a word is
said against him, she flies out in a rage, and there's no standing her
tongue!
Maybe, however, it's all for the best; for without a little excitement
to my nervous system, I 'd have found this place very dull. Dr. Morgan
Moore, that knew the M'Carthy constitution better than any one living,
used to say, "Miss Jemima requires movement and animation;" and, indeed,
I never knew any place agree with me like the "Sheds" of Clontarf.
Mary Anne keeps telling me that this is now quite vulgar, and that your
people of first fashion are never pleased with anybody or anything;
and whenever a place or a party or even an individual is peculiarly
tiresome, she says, "Be sure, then, that it's quite the mode." That is
possibly the reason why Lord George recommends us passing a few weeks
on the Lake of Comus; and if it's the right thing to do, I 'm ready and
willing; but I own to you, Molly, I 'd like a little sociality, if it
was only for a change. At any rate, Comus is in Italy; and if we once
get there, it will go far with me if I don't see the Pope. I 'm obliged
to be brief this time, for the post closes here whenever the postmaster
goes to dinner; and to-day I 'm told he dines early. I 'll write you,
however, a full and true account of us all next week, till when, believe
me your ever affectionate and attached friend,
Jemima Dodd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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