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.Miss Jenkyns tried to drown this confession by a terrible cough - for the Honourable Mrs Jamieson was sitting at a card-table nearest Miss Jessie, and what would she say or think if she found out she was in the same room with a shop-keeper’s niece! But Miss Jessie Brown (who had no tact, as we all agreed the next morning) would repeat the information, and assure Miss Pole she could easily get her the identical Shetland wool required, “through my uncle, who has the best assortment of Shetland goods of any one in Edinbro’.” It was to take the taste of this out of our mouths, and the sound of this out of our ears, that Miss Jenkyns proposed music; so I say again, it was very good of her to beat time to the song.When the trays re-appeared with biscuits and wine, punctually at a quarter to nine, there was conversation, comparing of cards, and talking over tricks; but by-and-by Captain Brown sported a bit of literature.“Have you seen any numbers of ‘The Pickwick Papers’?” said he.(They we’re then publishing in parts.) “Capital thing!”Now Miss Jenkyns was daughter of a deceased rector of Cranford; and, on the strength of a number of manuscript sermons, and a pretty good library of divinity, considered herself literary, and looked upon any conversation about books as a challenge to her.So she answered and said, “Yes, she had seen them; indeed, she might say she had read them.”“And what do you think of them?” exclaimed Captain Brown.“Aren’t they famously good?”So urged Miss Jenkyns could not but speak.“I must say, I don’t think they are by any means equal to Dr Johnson.Still, perhaps, the author is young.Let him persevere, and who knows what he may become if he will take the great Doctor for his model?” This was evidently too much for Captain Brown to take placidly; and I saw the words on the tip of his tongue before Miss Jenkyns had finished her sentence.“It is quite a different sort of thing, my dear madam,” he began.“I am quite aware of that,” returned she.“And I make allowances, Captain Brown.”“Just allow me to read you a scene out of this month’s number,” pleaded he.“I had it only this morning, and I don’t think the company can have read it yet.”“As you please,” said she, settling herself with an air of resignation.He read the account of the “swarry” which Sam Weller gave at Bath.Some of us laughed heartily.I did not dare, because I was staying in the house.Miss Jenkyns sat in patient gravity.When it was ended, she turned to me, and said with mild dignity -“Fetch me ‘Rasselas,’ my dear, out of the book-room.”When I had brought it to her, she turned to Captain Brown -“Now allow me to read you a scene, and then the present company can judge between your favourite, Mr Boz, and Dr Johnson.”She read one of the conversations between Rasselas and Imlac, in a high-pitched, majestic voice: and when she had ended, she said, “I imagine I am now justified in my preference of Dr Johnson as a writer of fiction.” The Captain screwed his lips up, and drummed on the table, but he did not speak.She thought she would give him a finishing blow or two.“I consider it vulgar, and below the dignity of literature, to publish in numbers.”“How was the Rambler published, ma’am?” asked Captain Brown in a low voice, which I think Miss Jenkyns could not have heard.“Dr Johnson’s style is a model for young beginners.My father recommended it to me when I began to write letters - I have formed my own style upon it; I recommended it to your favourite.”“I should be very sorry for him to exchange his style for any such pompous writing,” said Captain Brown.Miss Jenkyns felt this as a personal affront, in a way of which the Captain had not dreamed.Epistolary writing she and her friends considered as her forte.Many a copy of many a letter have I seen written and corrected on the slate, before she “seized the half-hour just previous to post-time to assure” her friends of this or of that; and Dr Johnson was, as she said, her model in these compositions.She drew herself up with dignity, and only replied to Captain Brown’s last remark by saying, with marked emphasis on every syllable, “I prefer Dr Johnson to Mr Boz [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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