Page:Baboohurrybungsh00anstiala.djvu/46

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Containing Mr Jabberjee's Impressions at The Old Masters.

IV

I have the honour to report that the phantom of delight has recently recommenced to dance before me.

Miss Jessimina Mankletow, the perfumed, moony-faced daughter of the gracious and eagle-eyed goddess who resides over the select boarding establishment in which I am resident member, has of late emerged from the shell of superciliousness, and brought the beaming eye of encouragement to bear upon my diffidence and humility.

This I partly attribute to general impression—which I do not condescend to deny—that, at home, I occupy the social status of a Rajah, or some analogous kind of big native pot.

So, on a recent Saturday afternoon, she invited me to escort her and a similar young virginal lady friend, by name Miss Priscilla Primmett, to Burlington House, Piccadilly, and, as Prince Hamlet appositely remarks, "Look here upon this picture and on this." Which I joyfully accepted, being head-over-heels in love with Art, and the possessor of two magnificent coloured photo-lithographs, repre-

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