Page:The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray Vol.20.pdf/218

190 what does this mean? Is this the woman I have been in love with all my life? Have I been such a ninny as to throw away my regard upon you? Why—actually—yes—you are—a little crooked!”

“Oh, you wretch!” cries Angelica.

“And, upon my conscience, you—you squint a little.”

“Eh!” cries Angelica.

“And your hair is red—and you are marked with the small-pox—and what? You have three false teeth—and one leg shorter than the other!”

“You brute, you brute, you!” Angelica screamed out: and as she seized the ring with one hand, she dealt Giglio one, two, three smacks on the face, and would have pulled the hair off his head had he not started laughing, and crying,—

“Oh, dear me, Angelica! don’t pull out my hair, it hurts! You might remove a great deal of your own, as I perceive, without scissors or pulling at all. Oh, ho, ho! ha, ha, ha! he, he, he!”

And he nearly choked himself with laughing, and she with rage; when, with a low bow, and dressed in his Court habit, Count Gambabella, the ﬁrst lord-in-waiting, entered and said, “Royal Highnesses! Their Majesties expect you in the Pink Throne-room, where they await the arrival of the Prince of.

’s arrival had set all the court in a ﬂutter: everybody was ordered to put his or her best clothes on: the footmen had their gala liveries; the Lord Chancellor his new wig: the Guards their last new tunics; and Ountess Gruffanuff, you may be sure, was glad of an opportunity of decorating her old person with her finest things.