Happy-Thought Hall

This rather damps his ardour; and the fact of being unable to consult his nephew on the best means of obtaining his chance of doing his "lit-tel steps," still further depresses...

If I wasn't President--I should like to--but Byrton's always out with Miss Medford. I wonder that a girl with brains, as she evidently has, can be taken by a fellow, who really...

"It is just like Mr. Regniati," observes Madame, severely. "He said he'd leave me to look after the luggage. Mr. Regniati has no notion of even looking after himself. Probably h...

[Miss Medford is an addition to our party. She was brought by Mrs. Orby Frimmely, and Mr. Frimmely subsequently came down with her brother Alfred Medford, a celebrated musical a...

_Happy Thought._--To get a country house for the winter. To fill it with friends. To have one wing for bachelors. Another wing for maidens with _chaperons_. To have the _Nave_,...

Captain Byrton is out hunting. The Signor and Milburd are out shooting. Mrs. Frimmely is out walking with Medford and Cazell. Miss Adelaide Cherton and her sister are in the gar...

Every one is silent for a minute, and then we smile at the absurd idea of there being a ghost about. I linger for a few seconds after the others. They go out on to the landing....

_Mrs. Frampton_ (_a middle-aged lady, coming up to him_). I really _must_ congratulate you, Mr. Milburd. I'm a great play-goer, and I haven't seen anything at any one of the Lon...

We do so. The "odd man" to toss again, and so on. I am the last odd man. Boodels chooses the room with the stain on the floor. He says he prefers it.

"Give it up," says Milburd. That's the worst of Milburd, when a conversation is beginning to promise some results, he nips it in the bud with the frost of his nonsense.

(h) _Studies in the Country._ I thought I should have been able to write a good deal in this line while at the country-house. This was to include botany, farming, agriculture ge...

We lounge over the room undecidedly. Mrs. Boodels thinks it's still raining. Pouring. Miss Bella says, "What a bother!" Miss Medford remembers having heard a problem worthy the...

_Medford_ (_explaining_). Ah yes, Boodels refers to the tone of their Churchmanship. The Rector is Broad Church, Mr. Marveloe, the senior Curate, is High Church, and Mr. Alpely,...

We go down. Hertfordshire. I find on inquiry that there is no Guide to this county. Black ignores it, Murray knows nothing about it, and Bradshaw is silent on the subject.

A lady says, "Oh dear! Our ball will be overdone with ladies. I mean, we've got plenty of gentlemen, but--I don't know what's the matter with the young men now-a-days, hardly an...

A fine old chimney, with a hearth for logs, and dogs, is at one end, and reminds me of retainers, deer hounds, oxen roasted whole, and Christmas revels in the olden time.

_Third._--Stand by Niagara Falls, and abuse them. The falls will go on the same as ever. Throw mud at them. None will stick. The power of pure water will wash it away.

Being deaf, Mrs. Boodels has, as our friend Captain Byrton expresses it, six to four the best of us. Repartees through an ear-trumpet lose their sting. And then you can't in pol...

Just as I am asking myself this, I meet Chilvern on the roof. He is examining the chimneys. The others are below choosing their rooms. It appears that no one has been up the nar...

Off to a dusty library of bookshelves, chiefly empty, and the remainder having an occasional medical treatise in the original Latin, with diagrams of the human frame, no fire, r...

_Happy Thought for Sunday._--Write down meditations. Like Marcus Aurelius did. Why not go in for _Sunday Books_? Telegraph to Popgood and Groolly (my publishers, who have been i...

_Weather fine. We are out for a walk. Mr. Orby Frimmely, of the City, represents the Prosaic. I put myself down as the Poetic, and the Signor as the Enthusiastic. To us a small...

"I see," sobs Corporal Tim, "You're eyes with weeping are dim." "No, no," says she, "Don't stop for me, But go to Tartary Crim." (_More sadly._) "Oh! go to Tartary Crim!"

Milburd asks Medford to accompany him in a "little thing of his own." The ladies have taken their turn at the piano, and Medford himself has favoured us with half an hour's wort...

Milburd is more attentive to the latter than Chilvern, who seems to me to be making up to Miss Medford, if to anyone; while Byrton sits next to Miss Bella at dinner, and monopol...

Half an hour after this I am in the yard. I hear a shrill piping voice. It says, "It carnt b' elped n'ow. 'Taint no farlt o' mine. It's them at th' office as is irregylar. I say...

Boodels and Milburd knock at my door at 2.30 a.m., after I've been asleep two hours, and wake me up to tell me that they had thought of a Pleasure of Poverty: it was, Milburd said,