noon
Lavinia followed in her train , And ran the self-same road , Ate sweet-bread first , then chopped-up brains , Eels , mushrooms , pickled toad . She cries , ` How flat the home _ cuisine _ After this luscious food ! Puddings and brutal joints of meat , That once we fancied good ! ' And now in all their leisure hours One resource never fails , Morning and noon and night they sit And polish up their nails . Then if in one short fatal month A change like this appears , Oh , what will be the next result When they have stayed for years ? Tremendous applause greeted this masterly effort , and other poems were produced with the rapidity of genius by Amanda and Lavinia , each writing the alternate verse , _ à la _ Beaumont and Fletcher , which gave a peculiar charm to these effusions . When Matilda was called upon for a festive suggestion , she promptly replied , with a graceful yawn : -- ` Let 's go to bed . '