It will neither break nor fall.
On board was Mr. D——, a chamberlain at the Court of Stockholm. This gay gentleman professed to be terribly smitten by the charms of a Danish lady, and wished very much to know whether she was married. I heard that she was, but she apparently desired to relieve the monotony of the voyage by a little flirtation, and kept her secret. On awaking from a nap on one of the sofas, a friend informed me that the chamberlain, whom I saw sketching a dozing passenger, had done the like by me. I quietly got out my sketch-book, and took him off as quickly as possible. Happening to look my way, he saw what was going on, and sprang up, as if shot. “Those who live in glass houses,” &c. I begged him to look at the caricature I had made;—eyes staring out of head, hair brushed up, &c. This counterfeit presentment seemed to strike him all of a heap; he shut up his sketch-book, and walked out of the cabin; while a Swedish Countess, very young and pretty, who had been smoking a very strong cigar on deck, and had to abide the consequences of her rashness, came downstairs, and took refuge in the ladies’ apartment.
END OF VOL. I.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary.
[2] His application has been refused.
[3] Since the above was written, we find that the plot is thickening. Archdeacon Brun, of Norderhoug, insists on all communicants being examined by him previously to being admitted to the rite; while, at Sarpsborg, there has been a meeting to discuss the sin of eating the blood of animals, and the possibility of holiness free from sin in this life.
[4] Their days always began with the sunset of the day before. Our fortnight and se’night are lingering reminiscences of this old Norsk method of calculation by nights instead of days.
[5] In the original, kinn = cheek.