Not
infrequently on such occasions every one present has spoken at once
with concentrated anxiety upon the condition of the weather, the
atmosphere of the room, the hour of the day, or some like detail of
contemptible inferiority. At other times maidens of unquestionable
politeness have sounded instruments of brass or stringed woods with
unceasing vigour, have cast down ornaments of china, or even stood
upon each other's--or this person's--feet with assumed inelegance.
When, therefore, in the midst of my agreeable remark on the asserted
no fragrance of the hound Hercules, a gentleman of habitual refinement
struck me somewhat heavily on the back of the head with a reclining
seat which he was conveying across the room for the acceptance of a
lady, and immediately overwhelmed me with apologies of almost
unnecessary profusion, my mind at once leapt to an inspired
conclusion, and smiling acquiescently I bowed several times to each
person to convey to them an admission of the undoubted fact that to
the wise a timely omen before the storm is as effective as a
thunderbolt afterwards.
It chanced that there was present the exceptionally prepossessing
maiden to whom this person has already referred. So varied and ornate
were her attractions that it would be incompetent in one of my less
than average ability to attempt an adequate portrayal. She had a
light-coloured name with the letters so harmoniously convoluted as to
be quite beyond my inferior power of pronunciation, so that if I
wished to refer to her in her absence I had to indicate the one I
meant by likening her to a full-blown chrysanthemum, a piece of rare
jade, an ivory pagoda of unapproachable antiquity, or some other
object of admitted grace.
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