56 THE FLORAL TELEGRAM. 
CHAPTER V. 
Which showeth the Disasters of the unfortunate 
Lionel and Violetta, and the cause of the 
honour done to me, Mr. Honeycomb, in this 
preternatural visitation of Floribel. 
After the rebuff that I received, 
which I have recounted in the last 
chapter, I was, for a space, absorb¬ 
ed in a moodiness of temper, much 
more natural than amiable—natural, 
because it was the first time, during 
my long life, that my poetical capa¬ 
bilities in hexameters were underva¬ 
lued ; unamiable, because, in the pre¬ 
sence of the ladies, it is incumbent 
