Whereupon
I had to go through the friendly ceremony with as many of the company
as were within reach, besides a few more who came express from the other
end of the table. VERY gratifying, wasn't it? Though I cannot go quite
so far as Jane, who wants me to have that hand chopped off, bottled,
and preserved in spirits. She was sitting up for me, very anxiously, as
usual when I go out, because I am so domestic and steady, and was down
at the door before I could ring at the gate, to which Boz kindly sent
me in his own carriage. Poor girl! what WOULD she do if she had a wild
husband instead of a tame one?"
And the poor anxious wife is sitting up, and fondles the hand which has
been shaken by so many illustrious men! The little feast dates back only
eighteen years, and yet somehow it seems as distant as a dinner at Mr.
Thrale's, or a meeting at Will's.
Poor little gleam of sunshine! very little good cheer enlivens that sad
simple life. We have the triumph of the Magazine: then a new Magazine
projected and produced: then illness and the last scene, and the kind
Peel by the dying man's bedside speaking noble words of respect and
sympathy, and soothing the last throbs of the tender honest heart.
I like, I say, Hood's life even better than his books, and I wish, with
all my heart, Monsieur et cher confrere, the same could be said for both
of us, when the inkstream of our life hath ceased to run.
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