The justness, notwithstanding his characteristic conciseness, of this criticism, I was glad thus to convey. Mr. Windham however, would not subscribe to it; but, with a significant smile, coolly said, “Yes, ’tis curious to hear a man of war’s ideas of rhetoric.”
“Well,” quoth I, to make a little amends, “shall I tell you a compliment he paid you?”
“Me?”
“Yes. ‘He speaks to the purpose,’ he cried.”
AN AWKWARD MEETING.
Some time after, with a sudden recollection, he eagerly exclaimed, “O, I knew I had something I wished to tell you! I was the other day at a place to see Stuart’s Athenian architecture, and whom do you think I met in the room?”
I could not guess.
“Nay, ’tis precisely what you will like—Mr. Hastings!”