This compact
invariably broke down, and all the young ladies went to sleep very
soon, and got up very early.
The concluding ceremony came off at twelve o'clock on the day of
departure; when Miss Twinkleton, supported by Mrs. Tisher, held a
drawing-room in her own apartment (the globes already covered with
brown Holland), where glasses of white-wine and plates of cut
pound-cake were discovered on the table. Miss Twinkleton then
said: Ladies, another revolving year had brought us round to that
festive period at which the first feelings of our nature bounded in
our - Miss Twinkleton was annually going to add 'bosoms,' but
annually stopped on the brink of that expression, and substituted
'hearts.' Hearts; our hearts. Hem! Again a revolving year,
ladies, had brought us to a pause in our studies - let us hope our
greatly advanced studies - and, like the mariner in his bark, the
warrior in his tent, the captive in his dungeon, and the traveller
in his various conveyances, we yearned for home. Did we say, on
such an occasion, in the opening words of Mr. Addison's impressive
tragedy:
'The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day,
The great, th' important day - ?'
Not so. From horizon to zenith all was COULEUR DE ROSE, for all
was redolent of our relations and friends. Might WE find THEM
prospering as WE expected; might THEY find US prospering as THEY
expected! Ladies, we would now, with our love to one another, wish
one another good-bye, and happiness, until we met again.
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