Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

J 22 An Inland Voyage.
off-hand way, produced a deep sensation. It
was Othello over again, with no less than three
Desdemonas and a sprinkling of sympathetic
senators in the background. Never were the
canoes more flattered, or flattered more adroitly.
"It is like a violin," cried one of the girls in
an ecstasy.
"I thank you for the word, mademoiselle,"
said I. "All the more since there are people
who call out to me, that it is like a coffin."
" O ! but it is really like a violin. It is finished
like a violin," she went on.
"And polished like a violin," added a senator.
''One has only to stretch the cords," con-
cluded another, "and then tum-tumty-tum" —
he imitated the result with spirit.
Was not this a graceful little ovation.? Where
this people finds the secret of its pretty speeches,
I cannot imagine ; unless the secret should be
no other than a sincere desire to please t But