Page:Literary Lapses - Leacock - 1919.djvu/157

  very quietly dressed: Mrs. McFiggin was daintily attired in some old clinging stuff with a corsage de Whalebone underneath. The ample board groaned under the bill of fare. The boarders groaned also. Their groaning was very noticeable. The pièce de résistance was a hunko de bœuf boilé, flanked with some old clinging stuff. The entrées were pâté de pumpkin, followed by fromage McFiggin, served under glass. Towards the end of the first course, speeches became the order of the day. Mrs. McFiggin was the first speaker. In commencing, she expressed her surprise that so few of the gentlemen seemed to care for the hunko de bœuf; her own mind, she said, had hesitated between hunko de bœuf boilé and a pair of roast chickens (sensation). She had finally decided in favour of the hunko de bœuf (no sensation). She referred at some length to the late Mr. McFiggin, who had always shown a marked preference for hunko de bœuf. Several other speakers followed. All spoke forcibly and to the point. The last to speak was the Reverend Mr. Whiner. The reverend gentleman, in rising, said that he confided himself and his fellow-boarders to the special interference of Providence. For what they had