And the jovial fellow made such droll remarks
that the whole party writhed on the grass with amusement. After the
pancake had been produced and eaten with the fingers, and the port bottle
been round, the senior shop-assistant made a speech which was at once so
moving and so witty that the ladies at one moment pressed their
handkerchiefs to their eyes, while the head of the family bit his lips,
and at the next interrupted the speaker with loud laughter and cheers.
The schoolmaster's mood became more and more morose, but instead of
going away he sat down on a stone under a pinetree and watched "the
animals."
When the speech was finished and father and mother had been toasted
with cheers and a flourish of trumpets, executed on a concertina,
accompanied by the rattling of all cups and saucers that happened to
be empty, the party rose to play "Third Man," while mother and
mother-in-law attended to the babies.
"Just like the beasts in the field," thought the schoolmaster, turning
away, for all that was natural was ugly in his eyes, and only that
which was unnatural could lay any claim to beauty in his opinion,
except, of course, the paintings of "well-known" masters in the
National Museum.
He watched the young men taking off their coats, the young girls
slipping off their cuffs and hanging them on the blackthorn bushes;
then they took up their positions and the game began.
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