Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1836-08-04

company of her betters and actually
danced two cotilions with them before
| the degraded truth was known!
1 Did you ever see such impertinencel
says one.
/ What brazen thing ? said anoth--
err.
] why see how she is dressedp said
third.
Such characteri' whispered a
fourth. They say-but never mind
now
A pot slewer in our company--the
wench chimed in Mrs. Z with
that elegance ofcxpression which char
acterized her, and turning up her nose
advised the ladies TO leave tho room az
no longer be insuIted withher presence.
This advice was assented to by The in
telhgent company, and the poor, but
infinitely superior girl was left alone
abashed, confused, and almost over
come with emotion. He who invited
her thither, was the son of her adopted
father, who united with intelligence q
graceful and gentlemanly department
and the command of extensive posses
sions in land in one ofthe most fertile
portions of our state. He was absent
when the revolution in the ball room
took place, but returned just as it was
evacuated by the ladies. Astonished
at the change, and perceiving Aman-
| da standing with face suffused with
| bushes, he hastily inquired the cause.
| A friend drew him aside and communi-
| Gated the facts as have penned them
The young man was enraged, and with
an emphasis adequate to his just excite
ment, he exclaimed, "what's that purse
proud fool--that ignorant pan of FASH
ion worth, who scorns virtue because
! it is coupled with poverty
Ten thousand dollars answered his
friend.
Ten thousand dollars, Ell! Well
Amanda is worth that sum and the
naughty fool in the bargain. Ten thou
sand dollars and that forsooth balan-
ced against virtuous respectability.-
Here Amanda, nay girl said he, ta-
king her by the hand, and bowling res.
pectlully to the gentlemen present, let
us leave this place. Where naughty
pride, pampered and fed with the
crumbs Of wealth, exercises an inhu-
ence superior to the dictates of good
sense, virtue is endangered
So saying they left the place and re-
turned home. The young mans honor
was involved in the transaction-he had
been sorely wounded and resolved on
revenge. The very next morning af-
ter the ball, Amanda K, the
poor, the sighted, the obscure girl,
who was denied the boon of mixing in
society because she wore the rustic
mantle of poverty, received from the
hands of the indignant young man, an
instrument of writing, securing to her
possessions to the full and undivided a.
mount of ten thousand dollars. This
gift, and the motive which promoted it
were soon made known to the naughty
Mrs. T, and envy, more painful
and ranking than disdain, supplied the
place of the latter. Nor was the cup
of bitterness yet full. With all the So
licitude Of a mother, she had laid
snares to entrap the young man in ques
ton, as husband of her own grey
eyed daughter, and fondly imagined
| that his urbanity was an evidence that
she had caught him in her meshes.-
But alas how soon do the most tow
| ering expectations fall from their high
station, when bolstered up by unsub-
stantial speculation. Ere two months
had elapsed the humble Amanda be-
came the wife of the wealthy Edgar
In. Time rolled on its silent course,
bearing upon its tide sweet flowers and
beaming sunshine, & every ingredient
of happiness to the youthful pair, and
those who turned their back upon Capt
Bacon's servant girl, became the cour-
tiers, the fawning sychopants of Mrs.
N, who in her new station, was
no more worthy of esteem, no more
beloved by the truly good. Twenty
summers have since scattered their
blossoms around her quiet manslen, IL
the slight touches Of the frost of age
are now gathering upon the temples Of
her fond husband. Yet love, pure
and holy, still warns the domestic cir
Gle wherein the altar of true beneyo-
lence is reared. The good things oil
life are poured into her lap in abundance
whence she distributes with prodlgal
hand their blessings to cherries power
ty, and it may be truly SAID, that 'her
children rise up and call her blessed
her husband also and he praiseth her.
What an instructive moral is gIcam-
ed from incidents of this kind-inci-
dents which occur almost daily in the
great mass of society. The simple tale
4 Il