He
is right in saying it is a beautiful place, and, as he often observes,
what an immense sum of money it would be worth if it were only in
England! but the day is not far distant, now that the Atlantic is
bridged by steamers, when 'bag-men' will give place to tourists, and
'Epaigwit' will be the 'Killarney' of America. He is quite right, that
day will come, and so will the millennium, but it is a good way off
yet; and dear old Minister used to say there was no dependable
authority that it ever would come at all.
"Now and then a brother officer visits him. Elliott is there now, not
the last of the Elliotts, for there is no end of them, and though only
a hundred of them have been heard of in the world, there are a
thousand well known to the Treasury. But he is the last chum from his
regiment he will ever see. As they sit after dinner he hands the
olives to his friend, and suddenly checks himself, saying, I forgot,
you never touch the 'after-feed.' Then he throws up both eyes and
hands, and affects to look aghast at the mistake. 'Really,' he says,
'I shall soon become us much of a boor as the people of this country.
I hear nothing now but mowing, browsing, and 'after-feed,' until at
last I find myself using the latter word for 'dessert.' He says it
prettily and acts it well, and although his wife has often listened to
the same joke, she looks as if it would bear repetition, and her face
expresses great pleasure.
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