To think we should have finished off the Queen of Huns?

[Hullygully]

Be not dwonhearted. I shall decorate and make some snacks. I just need to feed Nigel. I am sure others will be along soon enough.

"oh forgive me Hully - I did not see you swooning there "

ah. Dwon hearted.
I seem to have adopted an engaging mode of speech.
I shall twy to weturn anon

pag

fwank you gibbon. wuvverly wuvverly gibbon.

I'm picturing you with a large, meaty moustache. Just as I always have.

Not meaty as in big chunks of brisket hanging from it, like Mr Twit, but meaty as in thick and firm. A moustache a girl could get a good grip on.

Can someone pack me off to boarding school please so Mimi can come back?

I have sent Nigel to boarding school. He can play in the ha ha in the holidays. Grey mince and tapioca will do wonders for him.

Mary - I shall meet you at Belle Epoch

Are Mary and Jamie Really beside Newington Green? Cos we are neighbours if so....

How exciting. Do you know me ?

Mes cheres! The Prince Regent has heard so many tales of my stuffed gizzard canapes that he has requested my presence at the Brighton Pavillion for a grand ball!

I am prepared to refuse this generous invite if my dear lady friends are too tired to remove from the newly regained hall...

mayhap I could tempt Mr Beau Brummell and Prinny here for a game of Speculation?

...I'm not.

I'm merely pretending

wish I was though

Dunno Jamie, have in N16 for 12 years, so possibly have seen you traipsing round Clissold Park much like the rest of us!

Yes, no doubt .... Have never knowingly met anyone on MN who I know in RL. Slightly discombobulated at the moment, if I'm honest.

You could be someone I know well

OK - I have black bobbed hair .....

yes, well, you and half of stokey! (inc me, but brown)

You would recocgnise me by the charming freshness of my dimity frocks and zephyr shawls, or and kid slippers...!

Shall we leave a touch of mystery between us?

Yes, lets !

Sent Nigel to boarding school...?

Our Nigel..future saviour of the world and apple of his mother's eye..?

Does Gibbon know..?

I shall send the postillion to fetch him back, he can stay quietly in his room with his governess.

Oh! How good it is to be home, and there is talk of a ball too! Tis just like old times.

But what is that groaning and gnashing i hear faintly from far above in the attic? Surely Bertha lives not still? Who could hae been feeding her? Tis very long since she ate poor Miss Minty..

Sorry. tis but me fashioning my new home from raw materials

I ave it my and with an ammer

Mimi insisted that I do it, Hully, and she is very persuasive with her French ways.

Widow, you should be impervious to her blandishments, she is a saucy minxy French Fancy and she shall learn to subjugate herself to English decorum or feel the hot lick of the lash.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, does anyone have a nice frock? I think we left all the trunks and reticules in Cairo. I need something with a bit of upthrust to attrct the Prince Regent's eye. I do not feel Maiden Hully will keep her bloom much longer.

I found these delightful ancient costumes in a mysterious wardrobe in a deserted attic room!

Perhaps they might serve to cover your modesty until madame Lucille, Milliner and seamstress to the ton arrives with her silken wares?

They are a little dusty, Mimi dear. But thank you. Tell me, how does poor Bertha in yonder attic wastes? Did you see any signs of, er, nourishment?

Bertha is remarkably sprightly! Her enforced diet has reduced her lumpen limbs and transformed her into a svelte nymph - I believe she plans to escape from the attic and join the circus.. Mayhap we might spy her at St Bartholemew's Fair in fair London Town one day....

But pray, do admire this Chinoisery embroidery on this splendid overjerkin!

OH oh, it reminds me of dear mr Rochester. He used to smell exactly thus.