come out; that a new avatar of Mrs. Siddons has appeared at Covent Garden, in the shape of her niece Fanny Kemble; and that we have refused to emancipate the Jews, lest it should convert them—and their conversion being a sign of the end of the world, it is a consummation devoutly to be deprecated."
"Oh, I have heard all this a hundred times: one hears things till one forgets them. But what have you been doing with yourself?"
"Lording over the three elements;—fire-king with my hearth blazing with pine boughs—water-king, with the lightest of boats on the roughest of rivers—and earth-king, with the valleys flying before me, thanks to the prettiest of chocolate-coloured coursers—and am now come back to enlighten my club and enchant my partners with my adventures in Norway."
"Judicious, at least," observed Mr. Delawarr. "Nothing like laying the scene of one's adventures in a distant land. I only hope you will have no rival Norseman to encounter. One great reason why our old travellers are so much more delightful than our modern ones is, that they needed not to verify their facts; and I am afraid plain truth is like a plain face—not very attractive."
