Page:The Mikado or the town of titipu.djvu/14

 Come, come, make an effort, there's a good nobleman.

(aside to ). Well, I shan't mean it. (With a great snort.) How de do, little girls, how de do? (Aside.) Oh, my protoplasmal ancestor!

That's very good. (Girls indulge in suppressed laughter.) 

I see nothing to laugh at. It is very painful to me to have to say "How de do, little girls, how de do?" to young persons. I'm not in the habit of saying "How de do, little girls, how de do?" to anybody under the rank of a Stockbroker.

(aside to girls). Don't laugh at him, he can't help it— he's under treatment for it. (Aside to .) Never mind them, they don't understand the delicacy of your position.

We know how delicate it is, don't we?

I should think we did ! How a nobleman of your importance can do it at all is a thing I never can, never shall understand.

So please you, Sir, we much regret If we have failed in etiquette Towards a man of rank so high— We shall know better by and by. But youth, of course, must have its fling, So pardon us, So pardon us, And don't, in girlhood's happy spring, Be hard on us, Be hard on us, If we're inclined to dance and sing. Tra la la, &c. (Dancing.) But youth, of course, &c. I think you ought to recollect You cannot show too much respect Towards the highly titled few; But nobody does, and why should you! That youth at us should have its fling, Is hard on us, Is hard on us; To our prerogative we cling— So pardon us, So pardon us. If we decline to dance and sing. Tra la la, &c (Dancing.)