_Lady Rod_. O! a vary important one, I assure you;--of no less
consequence, madam, than how an odd trick at whist was lost, or might have
been saved.
_Omnes_. Ha, ha, ha!
_Lady Mac_. Ridiculous!
_Lord Lum_. Ha, ha, ha! my dear Rodolpha, I have seen that very conflict a
thousand times.
_Sir Per_. And so have I, upon honour, my lord.
_Lady Rod_. In another party, Sir Pertinax--ha, ha, ha! we had what
was called the cabinet council, which was composed of a duke and a
haberdasher,--a red hot patriot and a sneering courtier,--a discarded
statesman and his scribbling chaplain,--with a busy, bawling,
muckle-headed, prerogative lawyer;--all of whom were every minute ready to
gang together by the lugs, about the in and the out meenistry--ha, ha, ha!
_Sir Per_. Ha, ha, ha! weel, that is a droll motley cabinet, I vow.--Vary
whimsical upon honour.--But they are aw great politicians at Bath, and
settle a meenistry there with as much ease as they do the tune of a
country dance.
_Lady Rod_. Then, Sir Pertinax, in a retired part of the room--in a bye
corner--snug--we had a Jew and a bishop--
_Sir Per_. A Jew and a bishop!--ha--ha--a devilish guid connection that;--
and pray, my lady, what were they about?
_Lady Rod_. Why, sir, the bishop--was striving to convert the Jew,--while
the Jew--by intervals--was slily picking up intelligence fra the bishop
about the change in the meenistry, in hopes of making a stroke in the
stock.
_Omnes_. Ha, ha, ha!
_Sir Per_. Ha, ha, ha! admirable! admirable! I honour the smouse:--hah! it
was develish clever of him, my lord,--develish clever.
_Lord Lum_. Yes, yes--the fellow kept a sharp look-out.--I think it was a
fair trial of skill on both sides, Mr. Egerton.
_Eger_. True, my lord;--but the Jew seems to have been in the fairer way
to succeed.
_Lord Lum_. O! all to nothing, sir; ha, ha, ha!--Well, child, I like your
Jew and your bishop much.--It's develish clever.--Let us have the rest of
the history, pray, my dear.
_Lady Rod_. Guid traith, my lord, the sum total is--that there we aw
danced, and wrangled, and flattered, and slandered, and gambled, and
cheated, and mingled, and jumbled, and wolloped together--clean and
unclean--even like the animal assembly in Noah's ark.
_Omnes_. Ha, ha, ha!
_Lord Lum_. Ha, ha, ha!--Well, you are a droll girl, Rodolpha,--and, upon
my honour, ha, ha, ha!--you have given us as whimsical a sketch as ever
was hit off.
_Sir Per_. Ah! yas, my lord, especially the animal assembly in Noah's
ark.--It is an excellent picture of the oddities that one meets with at
the Bath.
_Lord Lum_. Why yes, there is some fancy in it, I think, Egerton?
_Eger_. Very characteristic indeed, my lord.
_Lord Lum_. What say you, Mr. Sidney?
_Sid_. Upon my word, my lord, the lady has made me see the whole assembly
in distinct colours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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