Part 39 (1/2)
”Then these aids to success Should a pic-nic possess For the cup of its joy to be brireeable, and fine- The Weather, the Wine, and the Women!”
A rule of pic-nics which, if properly worked out, could not fail to answer
Other songs followed; and Mr Poletiss, being a young gentleman of a meek appearance and still meeker voice, lyrically infore of the wide, wide sea, With a old, And a life that ild and free!” And when Mr Poletiss arrived at this point, he repeated the last word two or three tie the Third visiting Whitbread's Brewery-
”Grains, grains!” said rains! that comes from hops - yes, hops, hops, hops!”
So Mr Poletiss sang, ”And a life that ild and free, free, free, And a life that ild and free” To this char lyric there was a chorus of, ”Then hurrah for the pirate bold, And hurrah for the rover wild, And hurrah for the yellow gold, And hurrah for the ocean's child!” the hly reat satisfaction, as he turned his half-shut eyes to the sky, and fashi+oned his mouth into a smile Mr Bouncer's love for a chorus was conspicuously displayed on this occasion;
[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 275]
and Miss Eleonora and Miss Letitia Jane Morkin added their feeble trebles to the hurrahs hich Mr Poletiss, in his George the Third fashi+on, es to be derived from a pirate's career
But as Mr Verdant Green doing all this ti that he had found it necessary to withdraw altogether into the shade of the pseudo gipsy-tent Miss Patty Honeywood had made such room for him that she was entirely hidden from the rest of the party by the rude drapery of the tent
By the ti, Miss Patty and Verdant were deep in a whispered conversation It was she who had started the conversation, and it was about the gipsy and her fortune-telling
Just when Mr Poletiss had given his first i into his hurrah chorus, Mr Verdant Green - whose timidity, fears, and depression of spirits had somewhat been dispelled and alleviated by the allied powers of Miss Patty and the cha thus: ”And do you really think that she was only inventing, and that the dark ination?”
”Of course!” answered Miss Patty; ”you surely don't believe that she could have entleman's case or in the lady's?”
”But, in the lady's, she evidently described ~you~”
”Very likely! just as she would have described any other young lady who ht have chanced to be with you: Miss Morkin, for exaipsy knew her trade”
”Many true words are spoken in jest Perhaps it was not altogether idly that she spoke; perhaps I ~did~ care for the lady she described”
The sunbeah the tent's coarse covering, for both Miss Patty and Mr Verdant Green were beco very hot - hotter even than they had been under the apple-tree in the orchard Mr Poletiss was all this tie the Third, and lyrically expressing his opinion as to the advantages to be derived fro was al as ”Chevy Chase,” and etically led by Mr Bouncer, there was noise enough ipsy-tent
”But,” continued Verdant, ”perhaps the lady she described did not care for iven all her love to the dark ipsy seemed to say
[276 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]
that the lady preferred the light man But you do not believe what she told you?”
”I would have done so a few days ago - if it had been repeated by you”
”I scarcely knohat you mean”
”Until to-day I had hoped It seems that I have built my hopes on a false foundation, and one word of yours has crumbled them into the dust!”
This pretty sentence eend of the Fair Margaret~ He felt so htly bewildered and re276jpg> about his cru lady, with a smile, ”to cause such a ruin?”
”It caused you no pain to utter the words,” replied Verdant; ”and why should it? but, to me, they tolled the knell of end~)