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
The French milliner, who occupies one of the corners, begins to remove
the greasy pieces of paper which have enveloped her locks during the
journey. She withdraws the “Madras” of dubious hue which has bound her
head for the last five-and-twenty hours, and replaces it by the black
velvet bonnet, which, bobbing against your nose, has hung from the
Diligence roof since your departure from Boulogne. The old lady in the
opposite corner, who has been sucking bonbons, and smells dreadfully of
anisette, arranges her little parcels in that immense basket of
abominations which all old women carry in their laps. She rubs her
mouth and eyes with her dusty cambric handkerchief, she ties up her
nightcap into a little bundle, and replaces it by a more becoming
head-piece, covered with withered artificial flowers, and crumpled tags
of ribbon; she looks wistfully at the company for an instant, and then
places her handkerchief before her mouth:—her eyes roll strangely about
for an instant, and you hear a faint clattering noise: the old lady has
been getting ready her teeth, which had lain in her basket among the
bonbons, pins, oranges, pomatum, bits of cake, lozenges, prayer-books,
peppermint-water, copper money, and false hair—stowed away there during
the voyage. The Jewish gentleman, who has been so attentive to the
milliner during the journey, and is a traveller and bagman by
profession, gathers together his various goods. The sallow-faced
English lad, who has been drunk ever since we left Boulogne yesterday,
and is coming to Paris to pursue the study of medicine, swears that he
rejoices to leave the cursed Diligence, is sick of the infernal
journey, and d—d glad that the d—d voyage is so nearly over. “Enfin!”
says your neighbor, yawning, and inserting an elbow into the mouth of
his right and left hand companion, “nous voilà.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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