p20  Mr. Ducrot Pepys celebrates 100th Night . . . . "Malum in se"

Thursday . . . 20th . . . .

An unusual amount of confusion this morning at reveille as my other wife being stupid with sleep, had lost all sense of direction and was trying to leave by the wrong end of his alcove. We left him clawing futilely at the wall, screaming to be let out. When the sun comes up things may be easier for him. Today is a day long awaited by the fourth class as tonight is Hundredth Night. All of us have been exceedingly industrious of late preparing for it. Roget's Thesaurus has never been out of my sane wife's reach, and my other wife who is handicapped in speech-making by his vocabulary of twelve syllables has been practicing his worst faces, which I must say are very horrid as he is peculiarly fitted to excel in this line. The tac happened in during the middle of one and since has avoided this room. Tonight should be most interesting.

Later . . .

A very pleasant and hectic evening was spent by all. Grammarians are quite correct about the forcefulness of the Anglo-Saxon language. My sane wife delivered an excellent speech and was cheered to an echo. The masterful manner in which he dealt with those lumps of flesh and files,º the cow corporals, was most favorably commented upon. And the few thousand words he spoke upon the physical and moral state in general of the lower case sergeants I do think the best oratory that ever I heard. However, the effect was slightly marred by his stopping from time to time and saying: "Clever, eh?" A short lyric of my own upon a few of the more vicious of the upperclass was received very finely. My other wife whose few wits were completely addled by the noise and excitement expressed himself freely. Where he learned such words I know not, certainly not from me. Finally, he made an unsuccessful attack on the table commandant with a fork and then, completely unhinged, commenced to shriek insults at the O. C. and so had to be suppressed. He was very disappointed as it seems he had conceived that on Hundredth Night civilization was totally suspended. For the rest of the meal he sat telling himself what he would do when the revolution came. At the end he promised everyone blood would run in the gutters and came home looking happier than I have ever seen him before. Once home he started to rage up and down the hall waving a bayonet and challenging anyone to come out and fight, but this sport soon palled when a few did. At present he is asleep, thank heaven, and all is quiet. So I shall get me to bed.

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