Mr. MacBorrowdale. In the meantime, we are all pretty comfortable; and sufficient for the day is the evil thereof; which in our case, so far as I can see, happens to be precisely none.
Miss Ilex. Lord Curryfin seems to be of that opinion, for he has flitted away from the discussion, and is going down a country dance with Miss Niphet..
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. He has chosen his time well. He takes care to be her last partner before supper, that he may hand her to the table. But do you observe how her tragic severity has passed away? She was always pleasant to look on, but it was often like contemplating ideal beauty in an animated statue—Now she is the image of perfect happiness, and irradiates all around her.
Miss Ilex. How can it be otherwise? The present and the future are all brightness to her. She cannot but reflect their radiance.
Now came the supper, which, as all present had dined early, was unaffectedly welcomed and enjoyed. Lord Curryfin looked carefully to the comfort of his idol, but was unremitting in his attentions to her fair neighbours. After supper, dancing was resumed, with an apparent resolution in the greater portion of the company not to go home till morning. Mr. Gryll, Mr. MacBorrowdale, the Reverend Doctor Opimian, and two or three elders of the party, not having had their usual allowance of wine after their early dinner, remained at the supper table over a bowl of punch, which had been provided in ample quantity, and, in the intervals of dancing, circulated, amongst other refreshments, round the sides of the ballroom, where it was gratefully accepted by the gentlemen, and not absolutely disregarded even by the young ladies. This may be conceded on occasion, without admitting Goldoni's facetious position, that a woman, masked and silent, may be known to be English by her acceptance of punch.{1}
1 Lord Runebif, in Venice, meets Rosaura, who is masked, before a
bottega di caffè. She makes him a curtsey in the English fashion.
Milord. Madama, molto compita, voleté caffè?
Rosaura. (Fa cenno di no. )
Milord. Cioccolata?
Rosaura. (Fa cenno di no. )
Milord. Voleté ponce?
Rosaura. (Fa cenno di si. )
Milord. Oh! è Inglese.
La Vedova Scaltra, A. iii. S. 10.
He does not offer her tea, which, as a more English drink
than either coffee or chocolate, might have entered into
rivalry with punch: especially if, as Goldoni represented in
another comedy, the English were in the habit of drinking
it, not with milk, but with arrack. Lord Arthur calls on his
friend Lord Bonfil in the middle of the day, and Lord Bonfil
offers him tea, which is placed on the table with sugar and
arrack. While they are drinking it, Lord Coubrech enters.
Bonfil. Favorite, bevete con noi.
Coubrech. Il tè non si rifiuta.
Artur. E bevanda salutifera.
Bonfil. Voleté rak?
Coubrech. SI, rak.
Bonfil. Ecco, vi servo.
—Pamela Fanciulla, A. i. S. 15.
CHAPTER XXXII
HOPES AND FEARS—COMPENSATIONS IN LIFE—ATHENIAN COMEDY—MADEIRA AND MUSIC—CONFIDENCES
(Greek Passage)
The Ghost of Darius to the Chorus, in
the Perso of Æschylus.
Farewell, old friends: and even if ills surround you,
Seize every joy the passing day can bring,
For wealth affords no pleasure to the dead.