Curiosities of Impecuniosity

Curiosities of Impecuniosity

[Pg 1] CURIOSITIES OF IMPECUNIOSITY. THE MORAL AND IMMORAL EFFECTS OF IMPECUNIOSITY. I wish the good old times would come again, when we were not quite so rich, says Bridget Elia. I am sure we were a great deal happier. A purchase is but a purchase now that you have money enough. Formerly it used to be a triumph. When we coveted a cheap luxury, we were used to have a debate two or three days before, and to weigh the for and against, and think what we might spare it out of, and what savings we could hit upon that would be an equivalent. A thing was worth buying then, when we felt the money we paid for it. Do you remember the brown suit which you made to hang upon you, it grew so threadbare, and all because of that folio Beaumont and Fletcher which you dragged home late at night from Barkers in Covent Garden? Do you remember how we eyed it for weeks before we could make up our minds to the purchase, and had not come to a determination till it was near ten oclock on the Saturday night, when you set off from Islington, fearing you should be too late; and when the old bookseller with some grumbling opened his shop, and by the twinkling taper lighted out the relic from his dusty treasure-house, and when you lugged it home wishing it were twice as cumbersome, and when you presented it to me, and when we were exploring the perfection of it, and while I was repairing some of the loose leaves with paste, which your impatience would not suffer to be left till daybreak, was there no pleasure in being a poor man? Do you remember our pleasant walks to Enfield, and Potters Bar, and Waltham, when we had a holiday? Holidays and all other fun are gone now we are rich,and the little hand-basket in which I used to deposit our days fare of[Pg 2] savoury cold lamb, and how you would pry about at noontide for some decent house where we might go in and produce our store, only paying for the ale that you must call for, and speculate upon the looks of the landlady. We had cheerful looks for one another, and would eat our plain food savourily. You are too proud to see a play anywhere now but in the pit. Do you remember where it was we sat when we saw the Battle of Hexham, and The Surrender of Calais, and Bannister and Mrs. Bland in The Children of the Wood, when we squeezed out our shillings apiece to sit three or four times in a season in the one shilling gallery? You used to say that the gallery was the best place for seeing, and was the best place of all for enjoying a play socially, that the company we met there, not being in general readers of plays, were obliged to attend the more. I appeal to you whether, as a woman, I met generally with less attention and accommodation than I have since in more expensive situations in the house. You cannot see, you say, in the gallery now. I am sure we sawand heard toowell enough then; but sight and all, I think, is gone with our poverty. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 38439
Author: Somerville, H. G.
Release Date: Dec 30, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English