'For really this was a remarkable Ham,
A twenty-pound solid Imperial Ham,
And old Mrs. Liddicott
Tucked up her petticoat—'
"Which reminds me that the crowd specially cheered my white Balbriggans. They are out of date, but I could never fancy my legs in anything but white."
"What on earth are you reading?"
"The local paper—Opposition. Haven't you seen it? There's a whole column in verse about you, Elphinstone; hits you off to a hair, and none so badly written. I'd a mind to show it to the Countess and Lady Mary, but slipped it under the table cloth and at the last moment forgot it in your eloquence. You really must listen—"
'Sir Elphinstone Breward
He rang for his steward,
And "Damme," said he, looking up from his letters,
This side of the county
That feeds on my bounty
's forgotten all proper respect of its betters.'
"The devil!" interrupted Sir Elphinstone. "It's that dirty little
Radical, Wrightson."
"You recognise the style? It gets neater, to my thinking, as it goes on—"
'Agitators and pillagers
Stir up my villagers—
Worst of those fellows, so easily led!
Some haven't food enough,
Else it ain't good enough,
Others object to sleep three in a bed.'
'Deuce take their gratitude!
"Life"—that's the attitude—
"Dullish and hard, on the parish half-crown!"
Dull? Give 'em circuses!
Hard? Ain't there work'uses?
What can they see to attract 'em to town?'
"—Neat, in its way," commented Miss Sally, pausing.