United States or Singapore ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Morally there was a rift within the lute among the guests, for Molly betrayed that Adela had got on her nerves. Lady Sophia Snaggs poured easy conversation on the troubled waters, but at last the catastrophe could not be averted. At a moment when the others were silent Adela was talking. "Yes; I went to hear him preach, and it is so beautiful, you know.
"If ony on ye had had any gumption," Mr Snaggs was saying fearlessly to the parsons, "ye'd ha' gone straight to th' Chief Bailiff and ye'd ha' Houch!" He made the peculiar exclamatory noise roughly indicated by the last word, and spat in disgust; and without the slightest ceremony of adieu walked ponderously away up the slope, leaving his sentence unfinished.
It was on the Friday before Martinmas, at dusk. Now, in the midst of what in less than twenty-four hours would be the Fair, was to be seen a strange and piquant sight namely, a group of three white-tied, broad-brimmed dissenting ministers in earnest converse with fat Mr Snaggs, the proprietor of Snaggs's Snaggs's being the town theatre, a wooden erection, generally called by patrons the "Blood Tub," on account of its sanguinary programmes.
At any rate, by comparison with these flashy and flimsy booths, the Blood Tub, rooted in the antiquity of thirty years, had a dignified, even a reputable air and did not Mr Snaggs give frequent performances of Cruickshanks' The Bottle, a sermon against intemperance more impressive than any sermon delivered from a pulpit in a chapel?
"Que voulez vous que je fasse," replied the old Frenchman, gruffly. "Je suis j'ai that is, donnez moi passport." "Where do you go?" replied the Consul. "Calai." "Comment diable, speak Inglis, an I understan' you as besser. Your name?" "Lorraine Snaggs, gentilhomme." "What age have you? how old?" "Twenty-two."
And as the dissenting ministers gazed at Mr Snaggs's superb moleskin waistcoat, and listened to his positive brazen voice, they were almost convinced that the hated institution of the theatre could be made respectable and that Mr Snaggs had so made it.
He was absolutely new to the scene. "I lay they haven't got twenty couple inside," said Big James. And in less than a minute the troupe did indeed emerge, and old Snaggs expostulated with a dilatory public, respectfully but firmly. It had been a queer year for Mr Snaggs. Rain had ruined the Wakes; rain had ruined everything; rain had nearly ruined him.
And four thieves passed and repassed behind the screen hiding the doors, and reappeared nine times as four fresh thieves until the tale of forty was complete. And lastly the band played "God Save the Queen," and the players, followed by old Snaggs, processionally entered the booth. "I lay they come out again," said Big James, with grim blandness. "Why?" asked Edwin.
July was obviously not a month in which a self-respecting theatre ought to be open, but Mr Snaggs had got to the point of catching at straws.
"`Report of killed and wounded on board of his Majesty's brig Weasel, in the action of the 23rd of August: Killed, none; wounds and contusions, John Potts, William Smith, Thomas Snaggs, William Walker, and Peter Potter, able seamen; John Hobbs, Timothy Stout, and Walter Pye, marines.
Word Of The Day