A LOOP DROPT IN THE FOREGOING CHAPTER IS HERE TAKEN UP.
_Enobarbus._ Every time
Serves for the matter that is then born in it.
_Lepidus._ But small to greater matters must give way.
_Enobarbus._ Not if the small come first.
SHAKESPEAR.
In the last chapter an illustration of tediousness was omitted,
because it so happily exhibits the manner in which a stop may be put
to a tedious discourse without incivility, that it deserves a chapter
to itself.
When Madame de Stael resided at Copet, it was her custom to collect
around her in the evening a circle of literati, the blue legs of
Geneva, by some one of whom an essay, a disquisition, or a portion of
a work in progress was frequently read aloud to entertain the rest.
Professor Dragg's History of Religion had occupied on one of those
evenings more time than was thought necessary, or convenient by the
company, and especially by the lady of the chateau. It began at the
beginning of the world, and did not pass to the Deluge with the
rapidity which Dandin required from the pleader in Racine's comedy,
who in like manner opened his case before the Creation. Age after age
rolled away over the Professor's tongue, the course of which seemed to
be interminable as that of the hand of the dial, while the clock
struck the hour, and the quarter, and the half hour, and the third
quarter, and then the whole hour again, and then again the quarters.
“A tedious person,” says Ben Jonson, “is one a man would leap a
steeple from.” Madame de Stael could tolerate nothing that was dry,
except her father; but she could neither leap out of her own window,
nor walk out of her own room, to escape from Professor Dragg. She
looked wistfully round, and saw upon many a countenance an occasional
and frequent movement about the lips, indicating that a yawn was at
that moment painfully stifled in its birth. Dumont committed no such
violence upon nature; he had resigned himself to sleep. The Professor
went steadily on. Dumont slept audibly. The Professor was deaf to
every sound but that of his own voice. Madame de Stael was in despair.
The Professor coming to the end of an eloquent chapter declaimed with
great force and vehemence the emphatic close, and prepared to begin
the next. Just in that interstice of time, Dumont stirred and snorted.
Madame de Stael seized the opportunity; she clapped her hands and
ejaculated _Mon Dieu! Voyez Dumont! Il a dormi pendant deux siecles!_
Dumont opened his eyes, and Professor Dragg closed his manuscript.