Geoffrey's Victory by Mrs Georgie Sheldon — page 53: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE HAZER HAZED, 49 Assuming a somewhat exaggerated attitude of dig- nity, he began reciting one of Civero’s orations, rendering it in the original with perfect ease and fluency, while his audience listened as if spell-bound to the smoothly rolling sentences. But this display did not satisfy Mapleson. He insisted that Geoffrey should give a recitation in a reversed posi- tion—the speaker standing on his head. This proposal was received with shouts of “Shame !” “No, no!” ‘‘You are going too far, Everet !” Geoffrey’s eyes glowed with indignation, and a spot of vivid scarlet settled on each cheek. He saw that the young Southerner intended to degrade him. “T think you have made a serious mistake,” said Geof- frey, boldly approaching Everet Mapleson, “if you ex- pect to humiliate me. If you are sure that these gentle- men will not be satisfied until they see how I would look standing in a reversed attitude——” “Quite sure, amd we’ll soon prove it if you don’t get about it,” was the satirical interruption. “Then I will give you a text from the ancient Phoodrus, and at the same time gratify your friends—by proxy.’ Geoffrey made a sudden spring as he uttered those last words, seized the young Southerner about the waist, whirled him to the floor quick as a flash, and grasping him by the legs, held him aloft in this reversed position with a grip of iron, while he repeated, in a voice of thun- der, that Latin maxim: “ Sepe intereunt aliis meditantes necem. Often they who plot the destruction of others become the victims of their own machinations.” Then he released his hold upon the young man, politely assisted him to rise to his feet, and making a profound bow before him, gravely remarked : “T think [ have satisfied all requirements, I have shown your friends, if not you, how I should look standing on my head, while I have given you a quotation which may prove useful to you in the future.” It had all been done so quickly and so resolutely that there had scarcely been time for the others to interfere had they been so disposed ; hardly time, even. for Maple- son himself to resist, he had been so completely taken by surprise, while every one was amazed at the wonderful strength and dexterity that Geoffrey displayed. But once more on his feet, Mapleson flew into a white heat of rage. Eomichbooks (S@) ce