mast heads.'--'I wish I had such a beautiful mermaid for a wife,'
replied H----, who had joined and listened to our conversation. 'What a
pretty creature is that Miss E----; she looked as fresh as if she had
just come out of a shower bath.' 'Well, so she had.'"

* * * * *

"I went to the Opera on Tuesday to hear Mariani. She is
splendid--confounded plain, but that's no consequence. That Grisi
screams rather too much, although she acts well, and has a pretty
person, if it was washed. I believe Brugnoli's toes are made of _cast
iron_. _Toe_ K--g, could make no impression upon them. You know how K--g
obtained that name. He is a little puffy fellow, who goes about town,
making acquaintance with every body--is endured at watering places for
his poodle qualities of 'fetch and carry:' he is very anxious to become
acquainted with noblemen, and his plan is to sidle up and tread very
lightly upon an aristocratical toe--then an immediate apology, and the
apology is followed also with the wind and weather, and the leading
topic of the day, a knowledge of his lordship's friends or relations,
and a good morning. The next day when they meet, a polite bow from Mr.
K--g, and if an opportunity offers he enters into conversation, and thus
establishes his acquaintance.

"Such is his EXTREME method of introducing himself, which deserves
credit for its ingenuity and exclusiveness. I once knew a man who had
only one story, and that was about a gun. His difficulty was to
introduce this story, and he at last succeeded, like K--g, by the use of
his foot. When sitting after dinner he would stamp under the table and
create a hollow sound. Then, God bless me! what's that--a gun? By the
by, talking about guns--and then came his story."