The Wolves and the Lamb by William Makepeace Thackeray
page 35 of 82 (42%)
page 35 of 82 (42%)
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TOUCHIT.--Translucent orbs! beams of flashing light! lovely lashes veiling celestial brightness! No, they haven't cried much for Tom Flight, that faithless captain! nor for Lawrence O'Reilly, that killing Editor. It is lucky you keep the glasses on them, or they would transfix Horace Milliken, my friend the widower here. DO you always wear them when you are alone with him? MISS P.--I never AM alone with him. Bless me! If Lady Kicklebury thought my eyes were--well, well--you know what I mean,--if she thought her son-in-law looked at me, I should be turned out of doors the next day, I am sure I should. And then, poor Mr. Milliken! he never looks at ME--heaven help him! Why, he can't see me for her ladyship's nose and awful caps and ribbons! He sits and looks at the portrait yonder, and sighs so. He thinks that he is lost in grief for his wife at this very moment. TOUCHIT.--What a woman that was--eh, Julia--that departed angel! What a temper she had before her departure! MISS P.--But the wind was tempered to the lamb. If she was angry--the lamb was so very lamblike, and meek, and fleecy. TOUCHIT.--And what a desperate flirt the departed angel was! I knew half a dozen fellows, before her marriage, whom she threw over, because Milliken was so rich. MISS P.--She was consistent at least, and did not change after marriage, as some ladies do; but flirted, as you call it, just as much as before. At Paris, young Mr. Verney, the attache, was never out of the house: |
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