AVERN—a house kept for those who are not housekeepers.
Horace Smith, The Tin Trumpet.
HEN the breakfast is spread,
When the topers are mellow,
When the foam of the bride-cake is white, and
the fierce orange-blossoms are yellow.
Lewis Carroll, Phantasmagoria.
N [one] occasion, at a concert, a very indifferent tenor, who sang repeatedly out of tune, was indiscreet enough to express his regret to Rossini that he should have heard him for the first time in that room, as, he complained, "Le plafond est si sourd." Rossini raised his eyes to the abused ceiling, and simply ejaculated, "Heureux plafond!"
J. R. Planché, Recollections.