SHE WAS DELIGHTED.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2987, 21 January 1881, Page 4

SHE WAS DELIGHTED.

Mrs Batterytongue was outwardly a beautiful woman]; and, though her tongue worked like a steam-hammer when once in motion, yet the varying expressions of her countenance and the changeful light of her brilliant eyes made her really an object of interest when she was talking. And how she could talk ? When once her tongue had become loosened on a familiar subject, she was like a piece of machinery wound, up and all its parts set for long and continuous work. On one occasion she was present at an evening party at which chanced to be a gentleman, a near relative of the hostess' known to only a few of the company ; and those few, moved thereto by a hint from the hostess, determined to make the gentle-man-stranger the medium or means through which to punish the chatterbox for her tireless and persistent loquacity. Accordingly, in the course of the evening, the gentleman was pointed out to Mrs Batterytongue as one of the most learned and polished scholars in the country: Mrs B. was in a flutter immediately. She was eager to be presented ; and ere long the opportunity was offered and accepted. Happy Mrs B ! She drew the savant to a quiet nook in the great bay-window and had him all to herself; and there she kept him for the remainder of the evening, her tongue running like a mill-clapper, while he, with respectful attention, watched the play of her brilliant features, believing perhaps that she was giving him a history of her life. As the party was breaking up, her friends gathered around her, anxious to know how she liked her new acquaintance Mr S. ' Oh,' she cried, in an ecstacy of fervour, 'is he not charming ? Such wit, such a pattern of a gentleman ?" Imagine her feelings when convinced that the man had been deaf and dumb from his cradle!