If Mrs. Gilbert wishes to dance, said he, I shall have great pleasure, I am sure—for, though beginning to feel myself rather an old married man, and that my dancing days are over, it would give me very great pleasure at any time to stand up with an old friend like Mrs. Gilbert.

As long as George IV could reign, he reigned, and then he mizzled.

Stage lighting alters, too: from an exposed bulb hanging at the start to eclipselike effects later.

Tom had made toasted cheese sandwiches, or toasted “cheesers,” as he called them.