“No, it is the voice in which the senior Major’s wife calls over the back fence to the neighbouring officer’s lady to know if she can have the loan of some hair-pins. Lord! how I hate it!”
“The English accent as an affectation,” interposed Uncle, “has been handed down for generations.”
“If it is of ancient lineage here, it has died out in England,” said Mr. Bang with his usual assurance. “One does not hear it in Piccadilly or on the promenade at Eastbourne.”
“They take it as the correct thing, here in Ottawa.”
Mr. Fraser was interrupted by Mr. Bang, who said: “I often thought—when in England I noticed its absence—that it would be a good thing if Ottawa were to send a delegation to London to furnish instruction in the English accent. Now here’s an idea for you: introduce a Bill in Parliament bearing out this suggestion. You’d make a name for yourself.”
“I’d make an ass of myself. Leave the society people alone, if it amuses them it cannot do us much harm—”
“They should be sat upon,” said Mr. Bang. “What are English people to think of us when they hear such whinings uttered in all earnestness—”
“A visitor who would draw his estimate of a people after merely a survey of the court circle, would show such disregard for history and such general shallowness, that it would not matter what he thought.”
I felt this remark would appeal to Mr. Bang. His only comment was:
“Yes, and the Government House set of Ottawa corresponds to a court circle.”