Nokes, he (Triplet), seeing the orchestra thinned by desertion, and
nugatory by intoxication, had started from the pit, resuscitated with the
whole contents of his snuff-box the bass fiddle, snatched the leader's
violin, and carried Mr. Nokes triumphantly through; that thunders of
applause had followed, and Mr. Nokes had kindly returned thanks _for
both;_ but that he (Triplet) had hastily retired to evade the manager's
acknowledgments, preferring to wait an opportunity like the present, when
both interests could be conciliated, etc.
This letter he posted at its destination, to save time, and returned
triumphant home. He had now forgiven and almost forgotten Vane; and had
reflected that, after all, the drama was his proper walk.
"My dear," said he to Mrs. Triplet, "this family is on the eve of a great
triumph!" Then, inverting that order of the grandiloquent and the homely
which he invented in our first chapter, he proceeded to say: "I have
reared in a single day a new avenue by which histrionic greatness,
hitherto obstructed, may become accessible. Wife, I think I have done the
trick at last. Lysimachus!" added he, "let a libation be poured out on so
smiling an occasion, and a burnt-offering rise to propitiate the
celestial powers. Run to the 'Sun,' you dog. Three pennyworth of ale, and
a hap'orth o' tobacco."
Ere the month was out, I am sorry to say, the Triplets were reduced to a
state of beggary.
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