Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 100.djvu/309

Rh about without danger. A certain prelate had arrived by slow and imperceptible degrees at the point of drunkenness every night, and that by himself and at his studies. In order to effect a cure which should be as agreeable as the slow stumbling into the vicious habit had been, he adopted a very ingenious plan. He changed his glass for a silver-gilt cap, and every night he dropped into it one drop of wax, thus gradually diminishing the capacity of the cup and the quantity of wine consumed. The difficulty still presented itself of not making up for the deficiency of size in the cup by filling it up more frequently, but such critical inquiries would manifestly spoil the effect of the drop of wax story.

This story had probably no better foundation than that, the Englishman wishing to present his visitor with a rarity, had some plovers' eggs served up (the artist being responsible for their being hard boiled), and which the inventor of the pâte pectorale, not being familiar with, he at once pronounced to be the eggs of all the rarest birds that are known.

Here is another highly-coloured portrait of an imaginary Englishman: