“Indeed this (Town) Councillor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life—”
Well—otherwise. However, Hamlet remained unquoted.
After a long pause he recovered his powers of speech.
“And that’s champagne—that’s champagne!” he said in a weak voice, “Champagne! By the Lord Harry, I’ve tasted better ginger-beer!”
He has lately been very cautious in bringing forward any resolutions at the Corporation. He is afraid that another of them may chance to be carried.
The reporter who told me the story which I have just recorded, was an excellent specimen of the class—shrewd, a capital judge of character, and a good organiser. He had, however, never got beyond the stereotyped phrases which appear in every newspaper—indeed, there was no need for him to get beyond them. Every death “cast a gloom” over the locality where it occurred; and a chronicle of the weather at any time during the month of March caused him to let loose the journalist’s lion upon an unsuspecting public.
Once it occurred to me that he went a little too far with the gloom that he kept, as Captain Mayne Reid’s Mexicans kept their lassoes, ready to cast at a moment’s notice.