Tracks of a Rolling Stone  by Henry J. (Henry John) Coke
page 74 of 400 (18%)
page 74 of 400 (18%)
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			'All! would you have had her spring into my arms?' 
			'God forbid! You will have to face the mother to-morrow,' said I, recovering rapidly from my despondency. 'Face? Well, I shall have to call upon Mrs. -, if that's what you mean. A mere matter of form. I shall go over after lunch. But it needn't interfere with your work. You can go on with the "Anabasis" till I come back. And remember - NEANISKOS is not a proper name, ha! ha! ha! The quadratics will keep till the evening.' He was merry over his prospects, and I was not altogether otherwise. But there was no Xenophon, no algebra, that day! Dire was the distress of my poor dominie when he found the mother as much bewildered as the daughter was frightened, by the mistake. 'She,' the daughter, 'had never for a moment imagined, &c., &c.' My tutor was not long disheartened by such caprices - so he deemed them, as Miss Jemima's (she had a prettier name, you may be sure), and I did my best (it cost me little now) to encourage his fondest hopes. I proposed that we should drink the health of the future mistress of Warham in tea, which he cheerfully acceded to, all the more readily, that it gave him an opportunity to vent one of his old college jokes. 'Yes, yes,' said he, with a laugh, 'there's nothing like tea. TE VENIENTE DIE, TE DECEDENTE CANEBAM.' Such sallies of innocent playfulness often smoothed his path in life. He took a genuine pleasure in his own jokes. Some men do. One  | 
		
			
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