WELL MEANT

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XIV, 2 April 1898, Page 430

WELL MEANT

All languages seem to have a way of adapting themselves to error. Given an impulsive mind and a too hasty tongue, and speech becomes precisely the reverse of thought. An English workingman once applied to a country clergyman for a letter of introduction to a duke, of whom he wished to ask aid. ‘ But why don’t you go in person and see my lord ?’ asked the clergyman. ‘ Well, you see,’ was the nervous answer, ‘ I don’t like to speak to Lord . He may ta too proud to listen to the likes of me. I can talk to you well enough, sir, for there’s nothing of the gentleman ataut you !' ‘ Cassell’s Journal ’ says that during a holiday excursion in Switzerland, Sir Paul Hunter was lost. Guides were sent in search of him, and the excitement tacame extreme. Lady Hunter, safe in the hotel, began to tremble for her husband, but at dusk he entered the Alpine hamlet alone as if nothing had happened. Wishing to avoid notice and curious questionings, he had sent his guides to their own haunts. As lie passed through the little English crowd assembled to meet him, Lady Hunter, nervous from the sudden relief of seeing him again, rushed to meet him. ‘ O Paul !’ she cried, ‘ where have you been ? I am so glad to see you back. Some silly man has lost himself on the mountain, and I was afraid it might be you !’