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her a visit at her hotel, in the vicinity of the Bourse."
"_Mon Dieu--mon Dieu--mon Dieu!_"
"After promising my fair companion to be punctual, I walked as far as
Notter Dam--"
"I wish Mr. Dodge would be a little more distinct in his names," said
Mademoiselle Viefville, who had begun to take an interest in the subject,
that even valueless opinions excite in us concerning things that touch the
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affections.
"Mr. Dodge is a little profane, mademoiselle," observed the captain; "but
his journal probably was not intended for the ladies, and you must
overlook it. Well, sir, you went to that naughty place--"
"To Notter Dam, Captain Truck, if you please, and I flatter myself that is
pretty good French."
"I think, ladies and gentlemen, we have a right to insist on a
translation; for plain roast and boiled men, like Mr. Monday and myself,
are sometimes weeping when we ought to laugh, so long as the discourse is
in anything but old-fashioned English. Help yourself, Mr. Monday, and
remember, you _never_ drink."
"_Notter Dam_, I believe, mam'selle, means our Mother, the Church of our
Mother.--Notter, or Noster, our,--Dam, Mother: Notter Dam. 'Here I was
painfully impressed with the irreligion of the structure, and the general
absence of piety in the architecture. Idolatry abounded, and so did holy
water. How often have I occasion to bless Providence for having made me
one of the descendants of those pious ancestors who cast their fortunes in
the wilderness in preference to giving up their hold on faith and charity!
The building is much inferior in comfort and true taste to the commoner
American churches, and met with my unqualified disapprobation.'"
"_Est il possible que cela soit vrai, ma chère!_"
"_Je l'espère, bien, mademoiselle_."
"You may _despair bien_, cousin Eve," said John Effingham, whose fine
curvilinear face curled even more than usual with contempt.
The ladies whispered a few explanations, and Mr. Dodge, who fancied it was
only necessary to resolve to be perfect to achieve his end, went on with
his comments, with all the self-satisfaction of a provincial critic.
"'From Notter Dam I proceeded in a _cabrioly_ to the great national
burying-ground, Pere la Chaise, so termed from the circumstance that its
distance from the capital renders chaises necessary for the _convoys_--"
"How's this, how's this!" interrupted Mr. Truck; "is one obliged to sail
under a convoy about the streets of Paris?"
"_Monsieur Dodge veut dire, convoi_. Mr. Dodge mean to say, _convoi_"
kindly interposed Mademoiselle Viefville.
"Mr. Dodge is a profound republican, and is an advocate for rotation in
language, as well as in office: I must accuse you of inconstancy, my dear
friend, if I die for it. You certainly do not pronounce your words always
in the same way, and when I had the honour of carrying you out this time
six months, when you were practising the continentals, as you call them,
you gave very different sounds to many of the words I then had the
pleasure and gratification of hearing you use."
"We all improve by travelling, sir, and I make no question that my
knowledge of foreign language is considerably enlarged by practice in the
countries in which they are spoken."
Here the reading of the journal was interrupted by a digression on
language, in which Messrs. Dodge, Monday, Templemore, and Truck were the
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principal interlocutors, and during which the pitcher of punch was twice
renewed. We shall not record much of this learned discussion, which was
singularly common-place, though a few of the remarks may be given as a
specimen of the whole.
"I must be permitted to say," replied Mr. Monday to one of Mr. Dodge's
sweeping claims to superiority in favour of his own nation, "that I think
it quite extraordinary an Englishman should be obliged to go out of his
own country in order to hear his own language spoken in purity; and as one
who has seen your people, Mr. Dodge, I will venture to affirm that nowhere
is English better spoken than in Lancashire. Sir George, I drink
your health!"
"More patriotic than just, Mr. Monday; every body allows that the American
of the eastern states speaks the best English in the world, and I think
either of these gentlemen will concede that."
"Under the penalty of being nobody," cried Captain Truck; "for my own
part, I think, if a man wishes to hear the language in perfection, he
ought to pass a week or ten days in the river. I must say, Mr. Dodge, I
object to many of your sounds, particularly that of inyon, which I myself
heard you call onion, no later than yesterday."
"Mr. Monday is a little peculiar in fancying that the best English is to
be met with in Lancashire," observed Sir George Templemore; "for I do
assure you that, in town, we have difficulty in understanding gentlemen
from your part of the kingdom." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]