Introduction
Towards the close of Henry Kingsley’s Ravenshoe, William Marston has been invited to a double wedding, and being unmarried himself feels a little out of it. His eye lights on a children’s nurse, and gallantly he attaches himself to her only to find that in doing so he has attached himself to her three little charges too — the kind of charge that goes off with a bang.
I waited till the procession had gone in, and then I found that the tail of it was composed of poor Lord Charles Herries’ children, Gus, Flora, and Archy, with their nurse.
If a bachelor is worth his salt, he will make himself useful. I saw that nurse was in distress and anxious, so I stayed with her.
Archy was really as good as gold till he met with his accident. He walked up the steps with nurse as quiet as possible. But even at first I began to get anxious about Gus and Flora. They were excited. Gus wouldn’t walk up the steps but he put his two heels together, and jumped up them one at a time, and Flora walked backwards, looking at him sarcastically. At the top step but one Gus stumbled; whereupon Flora said, ‘Goozlemy, goozlemy, goozlemy.’*
And Gus said, ‘You wait a minute, my lady, till we get into church,’ after which awful speech I felt as if I was smoking in a powder magazine.
I was put into a pew with Gus, and Flora, and Archy. Nurse, in her modesty, went into the pew behind us.
I am sorry to say that these dear children, with whom I had no previous acquaintance, were very naughty.
* I have been unable to establish what this word was supposed to mean, or how it was to be pronounced. So far, setting aside stories which are borrowing gratefully from Ravenshoe, which include the comedy The Babe B.A. (1896) by E. F. Benson, I have found it in just one other place, The Luck of the Mounted by Sergeant Ralph Selwood Kendall (1920), where it is also a children’s taunt.
Précis
At the close of Henry Kingsley’s Ravenshoe, bachelor William Marston attaches himself to a children’s nurse for company at a society wedding, but soon realises that two of her three little charges are perilously over-excited. Gus, smarting at the taunts of his sister Flora, warns darkly of retribution to come, and William is filled with a sudden foreboding. (58 / 60 words)
At the close of Henry Kingsley’s Ravenshoe, bachelor William Marston attaches himself to a children’s nurse for company at a society wedding, but soon realises that two of her three little charges are perilously over-excited. Gus, smarting at the taunts of his sister Flora, warns darkly of retribution to come, and William is filled with a sudden foreboding.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, just, must, otherwise, ought, since, unless, until.