The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-17 00:00:00

YOUR STOCK BEAUTY-SAME YOUNG WOMAN !

Above this bronze Neptune hung the only picture in tho
room—a portrait, in kit-cat size, of a very beautiful young
woman, with a perfect- profile and large dark eyes, but
with something of the gorgeous colouring arid classic re-
gularity of feature which have become vulgarised by a
hundred different examples of the same young woman ;
now caressing a dove, and labelled Amanda ; now smirk-
ing above a sleeping baby, and entitled Maternal Affection;
anon simpering under the shadow of oriental head-gear,
and dubbed Zuleika ; but always equally adorned with all
the splendour of dark eyes, glowing cheeks, pouting lips,
and a straight nose.
But it is in the delineation of Dobb and of Sir
Jasper—of the cynical patrician and the vulgar
droll—that our authoress gives us the true taste
of her quality as a humorous writer. Dobb
who has a touch of the Swiviller about him, she
gives voice to thus—when banteting little Dorothy
upon her supposititious admirer :
" 'My love is like the red, red rose,' which is frequently
sung out of tune. I know all about it, Dorothy; and the
gentleman might be considered eminently handsome if it
wasn't for his red hair and the popular prejudice against a
decided goggle. I consider a hump rather an advantage
than otherwise, as a- man's coat-collar sits all the better for
it," exclaimed Mr. Dobb as he flourished his carving-knife
and fork above a baked shoulder of mutton. " You know
your own degrees : sit down ; the funeral baked meats,'
&c. How's the governor, Dorothy ? all serene ? And our
estimable friend, the Baronet ? I hope he didn't take my
refusal of his last invitation to dinner too much to heart.
I appreciate his friendly intentions, but the society of the
aged bloke is apt to pall upon the youthful intellect ; and
at his last feed I had occasion to complain of the viands.
The tripe and onions were overdone; the fricasseed beef-
suasages were riot up to the mark ; the iced pudding was
sloppy ; the champagne the ham was stewed in was not
Cliquot. I forgive him. ' Cassio, I love thee; but never
more be officer of mine !' "

The baronet, on the other hand, Miss Braddon
introduces as perpetually talking to us, or rather
thinking to himself, after this fashion :
" I hope the woman is not going to inflict her ilness
upon us," thought Sir Jasper, after murmuring something
that was indistinctly compassionate and befitting the oc-
casion ; "a lively widow is one thing, but a neuralgic
widow is another. There's a want of tone about her left
cheek this morning, and the right eyebrow is decidedly
out of drawing. Her toilette has been by no means con-
scientious, and I hold myself aggrieved by her careless
manipulation. If she wants to make as long a visit as her
trunks and bandboxes indicate, she must suppress her
neuralgic symptoms, and improve her flesh-tints. I
haven't anything on my walls so crude or cold as my
visitor's face this morning."

"The old county people would come to me in state, and
bore me out of my life," answered the baronet testily.
" What have I in common with the old county families?
I don't hunt ; and in the finest run that your hunting fel-
lows ever bragged of, my sympathies would be with the
fox rather than the whooping idiots who expend such an
unnecessary amount of perspiration in pursuing him. I am
neither horsy nor doggy ; I am neither agricultural nor
philanthropic. I should scarcely know the difference be-
tween a short-legged Galway hunter and the purest Arab
that ever bounded free upon his native plains. I know no
more of ploughing by machinery or sub-soil drainage than
an Icelander. I know nothing about the dwellings of the
working classes ; except that, as they don't interest them-
selves.about my dwelling, and wouldn't drive a nail into a
window-sash, or sweep away a handful of shavings for me
without being paid for their trouble, they can scarcely ex-
pect me to interest myself in their comfort without being
paid for my trouble. So you see, Marcia, the county
families and I could only bore one another."

" Of course it is, my dear," the baronet answered with
perfect good-humour. " Mrs. Harding is conventional ;
Mrs. Harding is artificial. Do you think if she were not,
that I would allow you to invite her here ? If she were
original, I would have nothing to do with her ; for ori-
ginality is only a milder term for eccentricity. I suppose
Pauncefort sets up for priginality; and look at his conduct.
What can be more disgustingly selfish than his rushing
away at the very time I most required his society ? Don't
bury yourself in that Orome when I'm speaking to you,
pray, Marcia ; it's a charming little bit I know, but you can
bury yourself in it on a more fitting occasion. I was
about to remark that conventionality is a very desirable
quality in an acquaintance ; and as Mrs. Harding's letter is
extremely nicesix 'dear Sir Jaspers' on the two pages.
But I suppose your candid person would have called me
that brute Sir Jasper ;' or 'your preposterous old father ;'
or ' the governor;;' or `the middle-aged party;' or some-
thing equally abusive."

Unless we were to reprint bodily the whole of the
utterances of these two delightfully amusing charac-
ters by way of wholesale quotation, we could hardly
do justice to the humour evidenced through-
out the delineation of each of them. The two
men, at the same time, being so widely dissimilar—
the one a refined and fastidious voluptuary—
the other a pertly whimsical and loquacious
vulgarian ! Each, moreover, it should be said, leaves
his unmistakeable impression upon the reader's mind,
as the latter glibly turns the pages of these three
most entertaining volumes—an impression far more
vivid, far more distinct, and, in an artistic sense,
far more agreeable, to our mind, than that left by
either the hero or heroine of the tale— the gentle
Marcia or • the forlorn recluse, known all through
the book as Sir Jasper's Tenant, meaning George
Pauncefort, or, to give him his true name, George
Pierrepoint, of the Hermitage, and of Pierrepoint
Castle, in Yorkshire. The Two Chief Characters
in Miss Braddon's new work being, to our mind,
as already intimated, the facetious Henry Augustus
Dobb, and the fastidious and cynical Sir Jasper
Denison.

Lifeboat Services.

ARKLOW, IRELAND, Oct. 13.
Mr. P. Maher, tho harbour master, states that a vessel
was reported to be in distress. yesterday on the Arklow
Bank during a strong wind from N.W. The lifeboat of the
Royal National Lifeboat Institution was manned and
launched with as little delay as possible. On arriving at
the bank the vessel was found to be the steamship Preston
Belle, of Liverpool, with her engines broken down. The
assistance of the lifeboat was offered to the captain, who
thereupon saw no other means of saving the vessel than by
dispatching a lifeboat to the shorn, with a telegraphic mes-
sage to the owners of the steamer. Accordingly the boat
returned to the harbour, which was reached at eight p.m.,
the crew being quite exhausted, having been out 10 hours,
and having pulled the lifeboat 17 niiles against a hard wind i
and heavy sea. The message was then at once dispatched.
1 The vessel drifted about all night, and was observed this
I morning at anchor near Glasgorman Bank, and a special
messenger was sent to Dublin with that intelligence.
HOLY ISLAND, NORTHUMBERLAND, Oct. 13.
A barque was observed at anchor yesterday (writes R.
A. Wilson, Esq.), in close proximity to the Fame Islands,
and a large fishing boat went to her assistance. On the
vessel approaching the harbour, it was observed that she
was waterlogged and far from manageable, and that there
was danger in taking her over the bar in such a heavy sea,
as she was of a deep draught of water. The Grace Darlinglifeboat, of the National Institution, was accordingly
launched, and proceeded to the bar, where she awaited the
approach of the vessel, which if she had hung on the bar
would in all probability have gone on to the rocks at Par-
ten Stiol, where all the crew might have been lost in the
absence of the lifeboat. Fortunately the vessel only struck
on the bar, without hanging, and got into safety without
any other accident. The lifeboat behaved admirably on I
the occasion.

HEALTH OF LORD PALMERSTON.—Much alarm
was created in the neighbourhood of Brockett Hall, Herts,
where Lord Palmerston is now staying, by the report on
Sunday night that his lordship was dangerously ill. It
appeared that on Friday Lord Palmerston took cold when
(hiving out, and thus induced an attack which at one time
seemed seriously alarming. Yesterday morning his lord-
ship was somewhat better, and a letter received at Cam-
bridge House from ono of his relatives last night, stated
that his condition had not altered for the worse during the
day.