Page:Tex; a chapter in the life of Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (IA texchapterinlife00mcke).pdf/176



*mond-blossoms in full swing, cherry-blossoms hard at it and pear-blossoms making a beginning.

Monday, 7 March.

Departure of [the married Yorkshire visitors.]

''"Thank God, they're gone!" the survivor is heard to say.''

''Arrival of the survivor's women-folk. He sees them to their rooms and comes down to gloat over some woman. When his wife returns to the hall:''

''"Hullo, Helen!" he says. "Are ye dahn olready?" And repeats the bright question: "Hullo, Helen! Are ye dahn olready?"''

What a people, the men of Yorkshire!

Wednesday, 9 March.

''I begin a collodial sulphur treatment for that picturesque right leg of mine. Irving's left leg was a poem (Oscar Wilde); my right leg is a money-box, adorned with three patches the size of a shilling, a sixpence and a groat, all very nice and silvery. I asked [the doctor] whether it was leprosy or dropsy. He said it was soriasis, scoriasis, scloriasis: I don't know which and I don't care.''