A third sting in Sir Henry's honey was that he knew that Good
was honestly and sincerely attached to the ominous-looking but
most attractive Lady of the Night. Indeed, poor Bougwan was
wasting himself to a shadow of his fat and jolly self about her,
his face getting so thin that his eyeglass would scarcely stick
in it; while she, with a sort of careless coquetry, just gave
him encouragement enough to keep him going, thinking, no doubt,
that he might be useful as a stalking-horse. I tried to give
him a hint, in as delicate a way as I could, but he flew into
a huff and would not listen to me, so I was determined to let
ill along, for fear of making it worse. Poor Good, he really
was very ludicrous in his distress, and went in for all sorts
of absurdities, under the belief that he was advancing his suit.
One of them was the writing -- with the assistance of one of
the grave and revered signiors who instructed us, and who, whatever
may have been the measure of his erudition, did not understand
how to scan a line -- of a most interminable Zu-Vendi love-song,
of which the continually recurring refrain was something about
'I will kiss thee; oh yes, I will kiss thee!' Now among the
Zu-Vendi it is a common and most harmless thing for young men
to serenade ladies at night, as I believe they do in the southern
countries of Europe, and sing all sorts of nonsensical songs
to them.
Pages:
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311