has not read for him.
_Verb. sap._
BARON DE BOOK-WORMS.
* * * * *
MISS DECIMA-HELYETT-SMITHSON-JACKSON.
One or two of the especially well-informed dramatic critics who, of
course, had seen the original piece _Miss Helyett_ in Paris, asked
why the English adapter had taken the trouble to invent nine sisters
for the heroine; the nine sisters never being seen and having nothing
whatever to do with the plot. Here the well-informed ones were
to a certain extent wrong. In the original French piece, _Miss
Helyett_,--whose name, as is suggested by _Woman_, is evidently a
French rendering for "Miss ELLIOT," which M. BOUCHERON "concluded was
her Christian name"--speaking of herself, says to her father, "_Vous
savez bien, mon pere, que vous n'avez pas de plus grande admiratrice
que votre onzieme enfant._" And the Reverend SMITHSON tells her, a
little later, "_J'ai case toutes tes soeurs tres jeunes_--" and "_Je
ne devrais pourtant pas avoir de peine a trouver un onzieme gendre._"
[Illustration: "Oh, shocking!!"]
That is why he is travelling to get an "_onzieme gendre_" for his
"_onzieme enfant_." The English adapter relieved Mr. SMITHSON of one
of his family, and so _Miss Helyett Smithson_ became _Miss Decima
Jackson_, i.e., the tenth, instead of the eleventh, of the worthy
pastor's family. The fact that all her sisters are married, makes
single unblessedness a reproach to her.
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