The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

80 THE STEAM PACKET. Misses Pifpaf, respectively; and by dint of a great deal of persuasion Mr. Tiptile, the dumpy_ treasurer, induced Mrs. Pifpaf to favour him with her hand, “ for just one ate pete? in spite of her “poor head.” Several other distinenuahen Luminaries mingled i in the diversion, and . the deck abaft the funnel assumed an appearance of gaiety, bustle, life, and happiness, which would have done good to the heart of te most rigid anchorite. The band commenced, and almost immediately afterwards the vis- a-vis at the top and bottom were in motion. Mr. Buckram who enter- tained an idea that agility and grace were synonymous in the school of Terpsichore, jumped about like a madman—cutting the most extra- ordinary capers ever seen outside of Richardson’s itinerant theatre— extending his legs and pointing his toes with an affectation calculated to provoke shouts of laughter with any other spectators than intelligent — Luminaries—and accompanying the strange evolutions of his body — with a series of grimaces which pleasantly varied from the grinning of a baboon to the lugubrious expression of countenance worn by an Open-air preacher in league with the swell-mob, for whose behoof he collects a crowd. Miss Belinda Pifpaf was quite delighted with her partner’s style of dancing : he was the very man for her—one who was as fond of romping as herself; and she skipped about hke a modern Esmeralda, displaying her well-turned ankles as she bounded up and down just for all the world as if the deck were composed of springing- boards. Captain Pentonville determined to keep the ‘‘ nobleman ” in countenance; and so he danced away furiously also; and the band, entering into the spirit of the principal leaders of the quadrille, in- creased the rapidity of the measure. Mrs. Pifpaf was whirled round and round, in spite of her ‘‘ poor head,” with disagreeable speed ;—Mr. Tiptile danced with all his might and main, while perfect Niagaras of perspiration rolled down his cheeks, which he mopped from time to time with a large blue handkerchief; and poor Mr. Smale, although ~ remarkable for the celerity with which he went through the figures of a ledger, was never before whirled so precipitately through those of a quadrille. Still they all laughed,—aye, and merrily and loudly, too; for all ridiculous ceremony was now laid aside, since his = lordship” and the captain were so very condescending! The first quadrille terminated without accident; and the chanipaga | was uncorked. A great deal more laughing, and talking, and joking, then ensued, the champagne producing this effect—that those who par- — took of it all laughed, talked, and joked at the sametime. The ladies’ eyes sparkled as if they had borrowed fresh fire from the generous nectar, which certainly was not calculated to quench that which had Gomicbooks.co