The Fitz-Boodle PapersThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Fitz-Boodle Papers
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Imaginary letters; Satire, English
Fourth Lady (aside).--“I thought she would not let the evening pass
without talking of her Malines lace and her Count d'Araignay. Odious
people! they don't spare their backs, but they pinch their--”
Here Tom upsets a coffee-cup over his white jean trousers, and another
young gentleman bursts into a laugh, saying, “By Jove, that's a good
'un!”
“George, my dear,” says mamma, “had not you and your young friend better
go into the garden? But mind, no fruit, or Dr. Glauber must be called in
again immediately!” And we all go, and in ten minutes I and my brother
are fighting in the stables.
If, instead of listening to the matrons and their discourse, we had
taken the opportunity of attending to the conversation of the Misses, we
should have heard matter not a whit more interesting.
First Miss.--“They were all three in blue crape; you never saw anything
so odious. And I know for a certainty that they wore those dresses at
Muddlebury, at the archery-ball, and I dare say they had them in town.”
Second Miss.--“Don't you think Jemima decidedly crooked? And those
fair complexions, they freckle so, that really Miss Blanche ought to be
called Miss Brown.”
Third Miss.--“He, he, he!”
Fourth Miss.--“Don't you think Blanche is a pretty name?”
First Miss.--“La! do you think so, dear? Why, it's my second name!”
Second Miss.--“Then I'm sure Captain Travers thinks it a BEAUTIFUL
name!”
Third Miss.--“He, he, he!”
Fourth Miss.--“What was he telling you at dinner that seemed to interest
you so?”
First Miss.--“O law, nothing!--that is, yes! Charles--that is,--Captain
Travers, is a sweet poet, and was reciting to me some lines that he had
composed upon a faded violet:--
“'The odor from the flower is gone,
That like thy--,
like thy something, I forget what it was; but his lines are sweet, and
so original too! I wish that horrid Sir John Todcaster had not begun his
story of the exciseman, for Lady Fitz-Boodle always quits the table when
he begins.”
Third Miss.--“Do you like those tufts that gentlemen wear sometimes on
their chins?”
Second Miss.--“Nonsense, Mary!”
Third Miss.--“Well, I only asked, Jane. Frank thinks, you know, that
he shall very soon have one, and puts bear's-grease on his chin every
night.”
Second Miss.--“Mary, nonsense!”
Third Miss.--“Well, only ask him. You know he came to our dressing-room
last night and took the pomatum away; and he says that when boys go to
Oxford they always--”
First Miss.--“O heavens! have you heard the news about the Lancers?
Charles--that is, Captain Travers, told it me!”
Second Miss.--“Law! they won't go away before the ball, I hope!”
First Miss.--“No, but on the 15th they are to shave their moustaches! He
says that Lord Tufto is in a perfect fury about it!”
Second Miss.--“And poor George Beardmore, too!” &c.
Here Tom upsets the coffee over his trousers, and the conversations end.
I can recollect a dozen such, and ask any man of sense whether such talk
amuses him?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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