Page:Once a Week Volume 8.djvu/400

392 native Burgundy. On the eve of the marriage, however, he said to himself, sternly, “Crêvecœur, no weakness;” and then suddenly arousing his gigantic energies which had slumbered so long, he achieved a series of artistic triumphs in cookery such as will long be remembered in the province of Vologda.

After this happy event, Reuben’s tall figure has several times been seen at the dinner-table of the Russian Embassy in London, and it is whispered that through the influence of the ambassador representing that puissant power, he has lately been presented to the rectory of Eggleton.

I may mention in conclusion, that a fashionably-dressed young lady, “well known to the police,” and styled by them “the Madonna,” from her resemblance to a celebrated picture, was lately convicted at the Central Criminal Court of picking pockets in omnibuses. She was provided with a pair of false arms, the hands of which reposed meekly clasped upon her knees, while her real digits were actively engaged in searching the coats and dresses of her neighbours.

Thus have we shown how curiously human events hinge upon one another, and traced Leonora’s title and Reuben’s rectory to a Bad Egg.