When this dramatic sense is bestowed upon
a heavy-handed, imperceptive, egotistical person, it becomes a
terrible affliction to other people, unless indeed the onlooker
possesses the humorous spectatorial curiosity; when it becomes a
matter of delight to find a person behaving characteristically,
striking the hour punctually, and being, as Mr. Bennet thought of
Mr. Collins, fully as absurd as one had hoped. It then becomes a
pleasure, and not necessarily an unkind one, because it gives the
deepest satisfaction to the victim, to tickle the egotist as one
might tickle a trout, to draw him on by innocent questions, to
induce him to unfold and wave his flag high in the air. I had once
a worthy acquaintance whose occasional visits were to me a source
of infinite pleasure--and I may add that I have no doubt that they
gave him a pleasure quite as acute--because he only required the
simplest fly to be dropped on the pool, when he came heavily to the
top and swallowed it. I have heard him deplore the vast size of his
correspondence, the endless claims made upon him for counsel.
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