The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. TitmarshThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Paris (France) -- Description and travel
Those who have much frequented the society of gentlemen of his
profession (and what more delightful?) must be aware, that, when all
the rest of mankind look hideous, dirty, peevish, wretched, after a
forty hours’ coach-journey, a bagman appears as gay and spruce as when
he started; having within himself a thousand little conveniences for
the voyage, which common travellers neglect. Pogson had a little
portable toilet, of which he had not failed to take advantage, and with
his long, curling, flaxen hair, flowing under a seal-skin cap, with a
gold tassel, with a blue and gold satin handkerchief, a crimson velvet
waistcoat, a light green cut-away coat, a pair of barred
brickdust-colored pantaloons, and a neat mackintosh, presented,
altogether, as elegant and distingué an appearance as any one could
desire. He had put on a clean collar at breakfast, and a pair of white
kids as he entered the barrier, and looked, as he rushed into my arms,
more like a man stepping out of a band-box, than one descending from a
vehicle that has just performed one of the laziest, dullest, flattest,
stalest, dirtiest journeys in Europe.
To my surprise, there were TWO ladies in the coach with my friend, and
not ONE, as I had expected. One of these, a stout female, carrying
sundry baskets, bags, umbrellas, and woman’s wraps, was evidently a
maid-servant: the other, in black, was Pogson’s fair one, evidently. I
could see a gleam of curl-papers over a sallow face,—of a dusky
nightcap flapping over the curl-papers,—but these were hidden by a lace
veil and a huge velvet bonnet, of which the crowning birds-of-paradise
were evidently in a moulting state. She was encased in many shawls and
wrappers; she put, hesitatingly, a pretty little foot out of the
carriage—Pogson was by her side in an instant, and, gallantly putting
one of his white kids round her waist, aided this interesting creature
to descend. I saw, by her walk, that she was five-and-forty, and that
my little Pogson was a lost man.
After some brief parley between them—in which it was charming to hear
how my friend Samuel WOULD speak, what he called French, to a lady who
could not understand one syllable of his jargon—the mutual
hackney-coaches drew up; Madame la Baronne waved to the Captain a
graceful French curtsy. “Adyou!” said Samuel, and waved his lily hand.
“Adyou-addimang.”
A brisk little gentleman, who had made the journey in the same coach
with Pogson, but had more modestly taken a seat in the Imperial, here
passed us, and greeted me with a “How d’ye do?” He had shouldered his
own little valise, and was trudging off, scattering a cloud of
commissionaires, who would fain have spared him the trouble.
“Do you know that chap?” says Pogson; “surly fellow, ain’t he?”
“The kindest man in existence,” answered I; “all the world knows little
Major British.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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