"Why, Byron wrote an ode to Greece, commencing with "The Isles of Greece! the Isles of Greece!" a very feeble line, as any one will see, for it contained a useless and an unmeaning repet.i.tion."
"And you might add vulgar, too, Mrs. Legend," said John Effingham, "since it made a palpable allusion to all those vulgar incidents that a.s.sociate themselves in the mind, with these said common-place isles.
The arts, philosophy, poetry, eloquence, and even old Homer, are brought unpleasantly to one"s recollection, by such an indiscreet invocation."
"So Florio thought, and, by way of letting the world perceive the essential difference between the base and the pure coin, _he_ wrote an ode on England, which commenced as such an ode _should_!"
"Do you happen to recollect any of it, ma"am?"
"Only the first line, which I greatly regret, as the rhyme is Florio"s chief merit. But this line is, of itself, sufficient to immortalize a man."
"Do not keep us in torment, dear Mrs. Legend, but let us have it, of heaven"s sake!"
"It began in this sublime strain, sir--"Beyond the wave!--Beyond the wave!" Now, Miss Effingham, that is what _I_ call poetry!"
"And well you may, ma"am," returned the gentleman, who perceived Eve could scarce refrain from breaking out in a very unsentimental manner--"So much pathos."
"And so sententious and flowing!"
"Condensing a journey of three thousand miles, as it might be, into three words, and a note of admiration. I trust it was printed with a note of admiration, Mrs. Legend?"
"Yes, sir, with two--one behind each wave--and such waves, Mr.
Effingham!"
"Indeed, ma"am, you may say so. One really gets a grand idea of them, England lying beyond each."
"So much expressed in so few syllables!"
"I think I see every shoal, current, ripple, rock, island, and whale, between Sandy Hook and the Land"s End."
"He hints at an epic."
"Pray G.o.d he may execute one. Let him make haste, too, or he may get "behind the age," "behind the age.""
Here the lady was called away to receive a guest.
"Cousin Jack!"
"Eve Effingham?"
"Do you not sometimes fear offending?"
"Not a woman who begins with expressing her admiration of such a sublime thing as this. You are safe with such a person, any where short of a tweak of the nose."
"_Mais, tout ceci est bien drole!_"
"You never were more mistaken in your life, Mademoiselle; every body here looks upon it as a matter of life and death."
The new guest was Mr. Pindar, one of those careless, unsentimental fellows, that occasionally throw off an ode that pa.s.ses through Christendom, as dollars are known to pa.s.s from China to Norway, and yet, who never fancied spectacles necessary to his appearance, solemnity to his face, nor _soirees_ to his renown. After quitting Mrs. Legend, he approached Eve, to whom he was slightly known, and accosted her.
"This is the region of taste, Miss Effingham," he said, with a shrug of the jaw, if such a member can shrug; "and I do not wonder at finding you here."
He then chatted pleasantly a moment, with the party, and pa.s.sed on, giving an ominous gape, as he drew nearer to the _oi polloi_ of literature. A moment after appeared Mr. Gray, a man who needed nothing but taste in the public, and the encouragement that would follow such a taste, to stand at, or certainty near, the head of the poets of our own time. He, too, looked shily at the galaxy, and took refuge in a corner. Mr. Pith followed; a man whose caustic wit needs only a sphere for its exercise, manners to portray, and a society with strong points about it to ill.u.s.trate, in order to enrol his name high on the catalogue of satirists. Another ring announced Mr. Fun, a writer of exquisite humour, and of finished periods, but who, having perpetrated a little too much sentiment, was instantly seized upon by all the ultra ladies who were addicted to the same taste in that way, in the room.
These persons came late, like those who had already been too often dosed in the same way, to be impatient of repet.i.tions. The three first soon got together in a corner, and Eve fancied they were laughing at the rest of the company; whereas, in fact, they were merely laughing at a bad joke of their own; their quick perception of the ludicrous having pointed out a hundred odd combinations and absurdities, that would have escaped duller minds.
"Who, in the name of the twelve Caesars, has Mrs. Legend got to lionize, yonder, with the white summit and the dark base?" asked the writer of odes.
"Some English pamphleteer, by what I can learn," answered he of satire; "some fellow who has achieved a pert review, or written a Minerva Pressism, and who now flourishes like a bay tree among us. A modern Horace, or a Juvenal on his travels."
"Fun is well badgered," observed Mr. Gray.--"Do you not see that Miss Annual, Miss Monthly, and that young alphabet D.O.V.E., have got him within the circle of their petticoats, where he will be martyred on a sigh?"
"He casts tanging looks this way; he wishes you to go to his rescue, Pith."
"I!--Let him take his fill of sentiment! I am no h.o.m.oepathist in such matters. Large doses in quick succession will soonest work a cure.
Here comes the lion and he breaks loose from his cage, like a beast that has been poked up with sticks."
"Good evening, gentlemen," said Captain Truck, wiping his face intensely, and who having made his escape from a throng of admirers, took refuge in the first port that offered. "You seem to be enjoying yourselves here in a rational and agreeable way. Quite cool and refreshing in this corner."
"And yet we have no doubt that both our reason and our amus.e.m.e.nt will receive a large increase from the addition of your society, sir,"
returned Mr. Pith.--"Do us the favour to take a seat, I beg of you, and rest yourself."
"With all my heart, gentlemen; for, to own the truth, these ladies make warm work about a stranger. I have just got out of what I call a category."
"You appear to have escaped with life, sir," observed Pindar, taking a cool survey of the other"s person.
"Yes, thank G.o.d, I have done that, and it is pretty much all,"
answered the captain, wiping his face. "I served in the French war-- Truxtun"s war, as we call it--and I had a touch with the English in the privateer trade, between twelve and fifteen; and here, quite lately, I was in an encounter with the savage Arabs down on the coast of Africa; and I account them all as so much snow-balling, compared with the yard-arm and yard-arm work of this very night. I wonder if it is permitted to try a cigar at these conversation-onies, gentlemen?"
"I believe it is, sir," returned Pindar, coolly. "Shall I help you to a light?"
"Oh! Mr. Truck!" cried Mrs. Legend, following the chafed animal to his corner, as one would pursue any other runaway, "instinct has brought you into this good company. You are, now, in the very focus of American talents."
"Having just escaped from the focus of American talons," whispered Pith.
"I must be permitted to introduce you myself. Mr. Truck, Mr. Pindar-- Mr. Pith--- Mr. Gray--gentlemen, you must be so happy to be acquainted, being, as it were, engaged in the same pursuits!"
The captain rose and shook each of the gentlemen cordially by the hand, for he had, at least, the consolation of a great many introductions that night. Mrs. Legend disappeared to say something to some other prodigy.
"Happy to meet you, gentlemen," said the captain "In what trade do you sail?"
"By whatever name we may call it," answered Mr. Pindar--"we can scarcely be said to go before the wind."
"Not in the Injee business, then, or the monsoons would keep the stun"sails set, at least."
"No, sir.--But yonder is Mr. Moccasin, who has lately set up, _secundum artem_, in the Indian business, having written two novels in that way already, and begun a third."
"Are you all regularly employed, gentlemen?"
"As regularly as inspiration points," said Mr. Pith. "Men of our occupation must make fair weather of it, or we had better be doing nothing."