The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-17 00:00:00

STORY OF A FLIRT.

Mrs. Bradley was born a flirt. Of all the evil
spirits which possess a woman the spirit of coquetry
is the most difficult to " lay" or to manage. When
she was only three years old she would kiss one
cousin whom she hated, just to tease the little boy she
then loved. She was so fortunate as to possess a real
earnest lover; who loved her for what he imagined,
in his ignorance of her real qualities, to be herself—
a sort of ideal of his own creation—named Blanche
Derrick ; she fancied he so loved her that nothing
could " cut him adrift," and she played him as an
angler would a trout ! Perhaps she did really love
him ; but that would be a problem difficult to
solve. Once, in the presence of a companion (as
she turned to enter her aunt's dwelling), she tore up
and flung him his declaration of love—the earnest out-
pouring of his gentle and noble heart—maintaining a
serious aspect the while. "He will surely come
hack," she said to her friend. " You may stay and
witness his submission—it was a ruse of mine ! He
will come back—entreat me to bear him again ;
he will surely return !" But he did not ; and then she
tried to pique him back ; but it would not do ; he
loved too truly not to feel. So she became en-
tangled in a net of her own weaving; and, to save
her reputation, married a man she -despised. Her
aunt, who enjoyed the distinction of bringing this
piece of coquetry to perfection, shook her head and
smiled, and sighed a little, nod said, " After all it
was the way of the world." Of course she was un-
happy as a wife, What coquette ever was happy,
either as meld, wife, or widow ? Again her reputa-
tion was in peril, greater than before, when, at the
very juncture, her husband obliged her—by dying!
the very first obligation he ever conferred upon_her,
so she was exceedingly grateful. If she had
been twice as old, she would have hed just as
many adorers, would have been quite as
much admired by the particular class of persons
who crowded about her ; a widow with a rich
dowry is a target for every spendthrift's arrow ; and
the amour propre which forms the coquette pre-
vented her seeing as clearly as she might have done
the object of the attentions she received. She could
not hear the half laugh which followed her carriage
in the Park; self satisfaction prevented her reading
the expression with which many a face turned either
to her or from her. For once " the way of the world"
was taxed with reason, it is the way of the Erglisti
world, properly so called, in all its phases, circles, and
degrees, to do homage to wealth ; it is this, and this
only, that lowers us in the moral scale of nations. Rank-
worship rather elevates than depresses ; hero-worship
of all sort, ennobles ; but mammon-worship invari-
ably degrades. Mrs. Bradley had a cap and a dahlia
called after her; and even on the turf " Blanche
Bradley " ran for the Derby ! Lovers of all ages,
tints, and classes were admitted and coquetted with !
but Blanche Derrick's nature remained with Blanche
Bradley ; she had nut learned wisdom ; she enjoyed
all these triumphs, but she longed for another ; she
wanted to see her old lover again at her felt; and
she condescended to labour to bring him there. At
this time a nobleman, whose name only proved how a
long line of ancestors could be degraded by one man,
an old roué, whose fortune was as dilapidated as his
character, and whose age was considerably in advance
of her, paid the lady the usual attentions—attentions
grown so continuous, that her only astonishment was
when they were not paid. She was as weak women
always, and wise ones sometimes, are—ambitious of a
title ; and as the elderly gentleman's vices had never
shaken his position in society, whatever his embar-
rassments might have done, she considered a good
deal as to the pour et conlre of this marriage, and
quite resolved that, if nothing more brilliant offered,
she would marry for position. This did not
make her the less anxious to recal her old lover; she
said it was the " way of the world" to forget old affec-
tions ; she talked, in his hearing, of the strength of
old ties; she flirted her fan as if she had studied its
eloquence at Madrid ; she sighed more in a week
than she had ever done in her whole life before; she
asked him if he had quite forgotten how to write
poetry ; and at last, one summer's evening, during
the progress of a little fete, she got him to sit beside
her and talk of old times. Every one laughed
at Mrs. Bradley's sentiment; it was " the way of the
world," they said, for rich widows to play for
titles if they could get them, but it was not " the
way of the world" for them to recal penniless
lovers. But Mrs. Bradley flirted on ; not that her
former lover believed in her. He saw it was a whim
of which he was the destined victim; he determined
to avoid a declaration, and she determined to bring
him to one. At last, while she detained him upon
one plea or another, her " ancient" made his appear-
ance; he was somewhat ruffled by the press nee of a
rival, who would have departed, but that the widow
insisted upon his remaining. He stood behind the
chair, while she coquetted with the recent arrival, as
she had done with him ; and, at the moment when
his disgust was at the highest, she extended her
hand to him, while leaning on the old man's shoulder;
he pressed it— it was retained ; and when she turned,
the expression of bins who had been her lover
proved that all her efforts had been vain ; she
struggled to free her hand—it was impossible. "My
lord," said the younger, "you see that this lady's
hand must have sought mine ; I could not otherwise
have taken it. If you wiil do the the favour to move
to this side, I will gladly relinquish it to you." It
was the most bitter lesson the coquette had ever re-
ceived, until the coronet of a peeress pressed upon the
brow it did not even adorn, then indeed she found
that the sins of men make them still more unmer-
ciful to the errors of women. They knew each
other, and persecuted each other. Heartless as she
had ever been, she had too much spirit to endure
the treatment she had received. "It is the way
of the world," said some of his Lordship's aristocratic
friends, " for her to forget the dignity which her
husband had bestowed on her." " It was the way of
the world," repeated others again, " for the woman
to be made the sacrifice." Now " the world" had
nothing to do with the affair : the woman's destiny
was throughout ruled by herself, and so was that of
his Lordship. The chalice was filled and poisoned
before they put it to each other's lips, but it was their
own will and pleasure to drink thereof. Whatever
goes wrong is stated to be " the way of the world ;"
whatever goes right is attributed to our own virtues
and deserts.-21/rs. S. C. Hall.

THE HUNTERIAN ORATION.-Mr. R. D. Grainger,
F.R.S., the lecturer on Physiology at St. Thomas's
Hospital, has been appointed by the council of the
Royal College of Surgeons to deliver the annual oration
on the 14th of February next, in memory of the founder
of the Hunterian Museum, that day being the anniver-
sary of the birth of John Hunter.

ALARMING FIRE IN CROWN-STREET, ST. GILES'S-....
Yesterday morning, between the hours of one and two,
a fire, nearly attended with a lamentable loss of life,
broke out upon the premises is the tenure of Mr. J.
Powell, wine-cask and bottle-merchant, carrying on
business at No. 37, Crown-street, :St. Giles's. Owing. to
the exertions of the firemen, the flames were extin-
guished, but not until that portion of the premises in
which the disaster occurred was burned out.
ADULT DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION.—On Fri-
day evening a meeting of this society was held at the
Board- room, 26, Red Lion-square, Bloomsbury. The
report stated that there were 20 inmates at present
learning trades in the asylum, in addition to a number
aro employed at their own homes.
The
the nstitutioa was stated to have
,ofhe deaf
expenditurea nddumb
ofwli oi
exceeded the income by nearly 450/., and to liquidate
the debt incurred a petition bad been presented to the
corporation of the city of London. The routine busi-
ness having been disposed of, several inmates of the
charity were examined as to their knowledge of religious
subjects, &c. From the replies set forth, it would ap-
pear that the deaf and dumb were exceedingly apt and
forward in their learning; and in the course of a short
time several would be able to sustain themselves by their
own exertions.

DEPUTATION ON THE TEA DUTIES.—At the
public meeting held here on the 28th ult., a committee,
consisting of the Mayor, the president of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Association,
and several other gentlemen from Liverpool, Leeds,
Hull, Blackburn, &c., were appointed to arrange a depu-
tation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. A deputa-
tion was subsequently appointed, and we understand that
Lord John Russell has intimated that he will receive the
deputation in Downing-street, on Wednesday next, the
19th instant.—Manchester Guardian.

" SAVE ME FROM MT FRIENDS.".--," I weeded my
friends," said an old eccentric gentleman, " by hanging
a piece of stair carpet out of my first floor window, with
a sheriff's sale fixed. Gad! it had the desired effect—I
soon saw who were my friends. It was like firing s gun
near a pigeon-house ; they all forsook the building at
the first report, and I have not had occasion to use the
extra flaps of my dining-table since."
RESTORATION OF WELLS CATHEDRAL.—The sum
already subscribed towards a fund of 6,0002 for re-
storing the choir of Wells Cathedral, amounts to nearly
5,000/. The subscriptions are rapidly increasing, and in
a short time it is proposed to commence the work.
THE AUSTRIAN FORCE IN ITALY.—The Prussian
State Gazette announces that the army of Italy, Owing
to successive reintorcem. nts, is now prepared for all
events. It includes 75,000 men, whereas, in ordinary
times the number is only 30,000.
physician of Madrid, in one of the journals
o
THE INFLUENZA IN SPAlN.—According to a
capital, about 60,000 persons in that city were,
a w state-
ment
suffering from the grippe. At Seville a
f aktb by
ago,
o
third of the population, anti at Murcia great numbers,
were suffering severely from the same malady.
ROBBERY OF TIIE " STABLE AT BETHLEHEM."—
The large silver star, sunk in the place supposed to have
been the site of the manger where Christ was born, has
been stolen. The Latins and Greeks accuse each other
of the robbery.
ARRIVAL OF SPECIE.—The line of packet ship
American Eagle, arrived in the docks from New York,
has brought seven boxes and one keg of specie, con-
signed to six individual firms of commercial eminence
in the metropolis. This vessel has brought a cargo of
provisions of immense extent and variety, the production
of the United States of America.

The Earl of Carlisle, we are happy to state, has
rallied, and his medical attendants have hopes of his
ultimate recorery.—Leeds Mercury.