The Mysteries of London, v. 4/4Reynolds, George W. M. (George William MacArthur)
General
The Mysteries of London, v. 4/4
Reynolds, George W. M. (George William MacArthur)
London (England) -- Fiction; Penny dreadfuls
“Pint of porter and pint palale for gentle-_men_!” vociferated the
waiter. “Weggitubles--bread?” he next demanded.
“No bread--greens!” ejaculated the Irishman.
“Bread and potatoes for me,” said his companion.
“One bread--one greens--one taturs--for gentle-_men_!” cried the
waiter, thus conveying his last instructions to the young lady who
officiated at the bar; and the said young lady sent each fresh order
down a pipe communicating with the kitchen--her own voice being as
affected and her manner as lackadaisical as the waiter was natural,
rapid, and bustling.
But before the various luxuries thus commanded were hoisted from the
kitchen to the bar by means of the moveable dumb-waiter that worked
up and down between the two places just mentioned,--we must pause
to inform our readers--if indeed they have not already suspected
the fact--that the two visitors to the dining-establishment in
Bucklersbury, were our old friends Captain O’Blunderbuss and Mr.
Francis Curtis!
The gallant Irishman had now numbered sixty-four years; and although
the lapse of time had rendered his head completely bald, and turned his
whiskers and moustachios to a bright silver, the ferocity of his aspect
remained unaltered, and his fiery disposition was unsubdued. He was
still the terrible Captain O’Blunderbuss--ready to exchange shots with
any one and on all occasions--and more devoted to poteen than ever. His
form was as erect as when in the prime of life; and his military coat,
all frogged and braided, was buttoned over an ample chest that no stoop
had contracted. The captain had grown somewhat stouter than when we
took leave of him nineteen years previously to our present date; but
his physical strength seemed to have remained unimpaired.
Frank Curtis was now forty-three. He also had “filled out,” as the
phrase is; but his countenance, in fattening, had lost nothing of its
ignoble expression of self-sufficiency and impudent conceit; and his
manner was as flippant as ever. Neither had he laid aside any portion
of his mendacious habits, but had rather added thereto by varying the
style of his boastings and the nature of his lies. He continued to
dress in a flashy way--delighting in a hat of strange appearance, and
in a waistcoat concentrating in a yard of stuff all the colours which
have existence and name upon earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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