'I shall never forget Mrs. Cibber's countenance in that last scene--you
know--in the "Orphan"--Monimia _you_ know, Devereux.' And the table
being by this time in high chat, and the chairs a little irregular,
Puddock slipped off his, and addressing himself to Devereux and
O'Flaherty--just to give them a notion of Mrs. Cibber--began, with a
countenance the most wobegone, and in a piping falsetto--
'When I am laid low, i' the grave, and quite forgotten.'
Monimia dies at the end of the speech--as the reader may not be aware;
but when Puddock came to the line--
'When I am dead, as presently I shall be,'
all Mrs. Cibber's best points being still to come, the little
lieutenant's heel caught in the edge of the carpet, as he sailed with an
imaginary hoop on grandly backward, and in spite of a surprising
flick-flack cut in the attempt to recover his equipoise, down came the
'orphan,' together with a table-load of spoons and plates, with a crash
that stopt all conversation.
Lord Castlemallard waked up, with a snort and a 'hollo, gentlemen!'
'It's only poor dear Monimia, general,' said Devereux with a melancholy
bow, in reply to a fiery and startled stare darted to the point by that
gallant officer.
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