" This was the way I used to manage
with troublesome customers of this sort. And how glad the children used
to be, when they got clear of such criticising people! And how grateful
they felt to me for the _protection_ which they saw that I gave them
against that state of restraint, of which other people's boys
complained! Go whither they might, they found no place so pleasant as
home, and no soul that came near them affording them so many means of
gratification as they received from me.
THE CAP THAT FITS
[Sidenote: _Austin Dobson_]
"Qui seme epines n'aille dechaux"
_SCENE--A Salon with blue and white panels. Outside, persons pass and
repass upon a terrace_.
HORTENSE. ARMANDE. MONSIEUR LOYAL
HORTENSE _(behind her fan)_
Not young, I think.
ARMANDE _(raising her eye-glass)_
And faded, too!--
_Quite_ faded! Monsieur, what say you?
M. LOYAL
Nay,--I defer to you. In truth,
To me she seems all grace and youth.
HORTENSE
Graceful? You think it? What, with hands
That hang like this? _(with a gesture)._
ARMANDE
And how she stands!
M. LOYAL
Nay,--I am wrong again. I thought
Her air delightfully untaught!
HORTENSE
But you amuse me--
M. LOYAL
Still her dress,--
Her dress at least, you _must_ confess--
ARMANDE
Is odious simply! Jacotot
Did not supply that lace, I know;
And where, I ask, has mortal seen
A hat unfeathered?
HORTENSE
Edged with green!!
M.
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