The last exercise was drawing to a close, and a large ring of
respectable members of society were violently sitting down and
rising up in a manner which would have scandalized Miss Wilhelmina
Carolina Amelia S. Keggs to the last degree, when Mr. Bopp was seen
to grow very pale, and drop in a manner which it was evident his
pupils were not expected to follow.
At this unexpected performance, the gentlemen took advantage of
their newly-acquired agility to fly over all obstacles and swarm on
to the platform, while the ladies successfully lessened their
unusual bloom by staring wildly at one another and suggesting awful
impossibilities. The bustle subsided, as suddenly as it arose; and
Mr. Bopp, rather damp about the head and dizzy about the eye, but
quite composed, appeared, saying, with the broken English and
appealing manner which caused all the ladies to pronounce him "a
dear" on the spot,--
"I hope you will excoose me for making this lesson to be more short
than it should; but I have exercise nine hours this day, and being
just got well from a illness, I have not recover the strength I have
lost. Next week I shall be able to take time by the hair, so that I
will not have so much engagements in one day. I thank you for your
kindness, and say good-efening."
After a round of applause, as a last vent for their spirits, the
class dispersed, and Mr. Bopp was wrestling with a vicious pin as he
put on his collar ("a sure sign he has no ma to see to his buttons,
poor lamb!" thought Mrs.
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