It
was what they called a double box; it really COULD hold two, that is,
very comfortably; and we got it a great bargain--for five hundred
a year! Here, Tuesdays and Saturdays, we used regularly to take our
places, Jemmy and Jemimarann sitting in front; me, behind: but as my
dear wife used to wear a large fantail gauze hat with ostrich feathers,
birds-of-paradise, artificial flowers, and tags of muslin or satin,
scattered all over it, I'm blest if she didn't fill the whole of the
front of the box; and it was only by jumping and dodging, three or four
times in the course of the night, that I could manage to get a sight
of the actors. By kneeling down, and looking steady under my darling
Jemmy's sleeve, I DID contrive, every now and then, to have a peep of
Senior Lablash's boots, in the "Puritanny," and once actually saw Madame
Greasi's crown and head-dress in "Annybalony."
What a place that Opera is, to be sure! and what enjoyments us
aristocracy used to have! Just as you have swallowed down your three
courses (three curses I used to call them;--for so, indeed, they are,
causing a deal of heartburns, headaches, doctor's bills, pills, want of
sleep, and such like)--just, I say, as you get down your three courses,
which I defy any man to enjoy properly unless he has two hours of drink
and quiet afterwards, up comes the carriage, in bursts my Jemmy, as
fine as a duchess, and scented like our shop.
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