Moncharmin declares, in his
Memoirs, that the guest's nose was transparent: "long, thin and transparent" are his exact words.
"The '
Memoirs of an Alcoholic,'" I sneered--or, rather, John Barleycorn sneered; for he sat with me there at table in my pleasant, philanthropic jingle, and it is a trick of John Barleycorn to turn the smile to a sneer without an instant's warning.
We learn this from the
memoirs of a man who was concerned in some few of these defeats and in many of these victories.
"My
memoirs!" he began, with redoubled pride and dignity.
Descending to particulars, each member of the club contributed his own little stock of scandal to the
memoirs of the Countess.
His title, schoolmaster, would very naturally seem derived from the name bestowed upon the harem itself, but some have surmised that the man who first thus entitled this sort of Ottoman whale, must have read the
memoirs of Vidocq, and informed himself what sort of a country-schoolmaster that famous Frenchman was in his younger days, and what was the nature of those occult lessons he inculcated into some of his pupils.
With the exception of a vague de- scription, so I continued, till the other day, when you read me your
memoirs. I hardly knew, at the time, whether to thank you or not for the sight of them, when I reflected that it was still dangerous, in Massachusetts, for honest men to tell their names!
If my poor Flatland friend retained the vigour of mind which he enjoyed when he began to compose these
Memoirs, I should not now need to represent him in this preface, in which he desires, firstly, to return his thanks to his readers and critics in Spaceland, whose appreciation has, with unexpected celerity, required a second edition of his work; secondly, to apologize for certain errors and misprints (for which, however, he is not entirely responsible); and, thirdly, to explain one or two misconceptions.
"True, Laurence,'" replied Grandfather, smiling; "we must write a book with some such title as this:
MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIMES, BY GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR."
When later on in his
memoirs Count Rostopchin explained his actions at this time, he repeatedly says that he was then actuated by two important considerations: to maintain tranquillity in Moscow and expedite the departure of the inhabitants.
For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble, by the parish surgeon, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear any name at all; in which case it is somewhat more than probable that these
memoirs would never have appeared; or, if they had, that being comprised within a couple of pages, they would have possessed the inestimable merit of being the most concise and faithful specimen of biography, extant in the literature of any age or country.
She ran the risk of wasting another minute or two, and went on with the
memoirs of Tommie.