Duck looked amazed at his guest. He had not the remotest idea of the point of Byron’s joke. He felt, in his confused way, that “’Enery Byron was gittin’ at ’im.” He smiled feebly, shook his head in modest deprecation, and answered:
“’Ar, you will ’ave your little joke, sir; but it ain’t the haitch after all, it’s the ’O we’re agoin’ to see—the ’O.”
“O!” was Byron’s monosyllabic comment.
William Duck had in his company as “leading man” a capital actor named Edward George. Much of the success of “Our Boys” in the provinces was due to the admirable impersonation of Perkyn Middlewick by that excellent comedian. While on tour, and playing in one of the large towns in the North, an admirer of George presented him with a cameo pin, having the likeness of Lord Byron carved on it. Duck, who noticed everything, and who had twice as much curiosity as an old woman, seeing the pin in the scarf of the comedian, immediately said:
“Pretty pin, Mr. George! ’Ad it giv’ to you?”
“It’s a present,” admitted the actor.
“Anybody’s portrait? Hey, Mr. George?”
“Yes. It’s a portrait of Byron,” was the reply.
Duck started, came nearer to George, held his face close to the cameo, and then fell back laughing consumedly. When he had succeeded in controlling his merriment, he exclaimed:
“You’ve bin took in, my dear feller: ’tain’t a bit like ’im!”