You will like my Thespians, sir, when you see 'em.
The younger ladies are decidedly--er--vivacious. Bianca, our
Columbine, has all the makings of a beauty--she has but just turned
the corner of seventeen; and Lauretta, who plays the scheming
chambermaid, is more than passably good-looking. As for Donna Julia,
her charms at this time of day are moral rather than physical: but,
having married our leading lover, Rinaldo, she continues to exact his
vows on the stage and the current rate of pay for them from the
treasury. Does Rinaldo's passion show signs of flagging? She pulls
his ears for it, later on, in conjugal seclusion. Poor fellow!--
"_Non equidem invideo; miror magis_.
"Do the night's takings fall short of her equally high standard?
She threatens to pull mine: for I, cavalier, am the treasurer. . . .
But at what rate am I overrunning my impulses to ask news from you!
How does your father, sir--that modern Bayard? And Captain Pomery?
And my old friend Billy Priske?"
I told him, briefly as I could, of my father's end. He laid down his
spoon and looked at me for a while across the table with eyes which,
being unused to emotion, betrayed it awkwardly, with a certain shame.
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