Page 1004 - vanity-fair

it instantly contradicted by the French diplomatist.
Everybody in the town was ranged in one or other of
these factions. The Lederlung was a prettyish little crea-
ture certainly, and her voice (what there was of it) was very
sweet, and there is no doubt that the Strumpff was not in
her first youth and beauty, and certainly too stout; when she
came on in the last scene of the Sonnambula, for instance,
in her night-chemise with a lamp in her hand, and had to
go out of the window, and pass over the plank of the mill, it
was all she could do to squeeze out of the window, and the
plank used to bend and creak again under her weight—but
how she poured out the finale of the opera! and with what a
burst of feeling she rushed into Elvino’s arms—almost fit to
smother him! Whereas the little Lederlung—but a truce to
this gossip—the fact is that these two women were the two
flags of the French and the English party at Pumpernickel,
and the society was divided in its allegiance to those two
great nations.
We had on our side the Home Minister, the Master of the
Horse, the Duke’s Private Secretary, and the Prince’s Tutor;
whereas of the French party were the Foreign Minister, the
Commander-in-Chief’s Lady, who had served under Na-
poleon, and the Hof-Marschall and his wife, who was glad
enough to get the fashions from Pans, and always had them
and her caps by M. de Macabau’s courier. The Secretary of
his Chancery was little Grignac, a young fellow, as mali-
cious as Satan, and who made caricatures of Tapeworm in
all the-albums of the place.
Their headquarters and table d’hote were established at

1004 Vanity Fair