| | 1 | Author: | Burnett, Frances Hodgson | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Smethurstses  | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | SMETHURSTSES, mum—yes, mum, on accounts of me bein' Smethurst
an' the wax-works mine. Fifteen year I've been in the business,
an' if I live fifteen year more I shall have been in it thirty;
for wax-works is the kind of a business as a man gets used to and
friendly with, after a manner. Lor' bless you! there's no
tellin' how much company them there wax-works is. I've picked a
companion or so out of the collection. Why,
there's Lady Jane Grey, as is readin' her Greek Testyment; when
her works is in order an' she's set a-goin', liftin' her eyes
gentle-like from her book, I could fancy as she knew every
trouble I'd had an' was glad as they was over. And there's the
Royal Fam'ly on the dais an a settin' together as free and home-like and smilin' as if they wasn't nothin' more than flesh an'
blood like you an' me an' not a crown among 'em. Why, they've
actually been a comfort to me. I've set an' took my tea on my
knee on the step there many a time, because it seemed cheerfuller
than in my
own little place at the back. If I was a talkin' man
I might object to the stillness an' a general fixedness in the
gaze, as perhaps is an objection as wax-works is open to as a
rule, though I can't say as it ever impressed me as a very
affable gentleman once said it impressed him. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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