CONVENTION-AL POLITENESS.
Madame France (with effusion)—
"And doth not a meeting like this make amends?"
I trust I have quoted with textual accuracy your so charming, and to the actual situation happily appropriate poet?
Mr. Bull (avec empressement). It does—or perhaps I should say doth—indeed, Madam. As to the bit from the bard—well, may its appropriateness never be less! How much pleasanter than the grim dictum of an elder rhymester, who referred to your people as those
"Whom nature hath predestined for our foes,
And made it bliss and virtue to oppose."
Madame France. The barbarian! Oppose, indeed! Why should we oppose each other, dear Monsieur Bull?
Mr. Bull. Why, indeed?
Madame France. True, your bellicose Lord Palmerston did oppose my great Ferdinand's grand idea, and that from motives the most insular and unenlightened. Just as some few poltroons in your sea-girt isle at present oppose the Channel Tunnel, which yet, in good time, will doubtless become as benign an actuality as the Suez Canal itself.