 | Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family |  |
OPERATIC REBUKE.
“I can't catch the malady!” said Mrs. Partington, at
the opera, as she stood upon tiptoe, in the lobby of the
Howard Athenæum, in vain attempting to look over the
heads before her. She had received a ticket, but it
secured nothing but an outside position, and she had
gone wandering round like a jolly planet, without any
particular orbit. Ike was in the gallery, eating a penny's
worth of pea-nuts, and throwing the shells into the
parquet below. “I can't catch the malady of the uproar,
and more 'n half the words are all Dutch to me.
This is the first opiatic performance I ever went to, and
if I can't get a seat, I can't stand it to come agin.”
She said it very firmly. As she was going down the
stairs, a young gentleman, with curly hair, reached over
the banisters, and blandly informed her that he could
furnish her with a seat. She turned her benevolent
spectacles, and face attached, towards him, and told him
it was rather late, after the evening had half gone, to
think of politeness.
It was a picture! The young curly head bending over
the banister, and the spectacles, and the black bonnet,
and the widow of Corporal Paul, on the stairs looking up.
It was sublime!
| Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family | |