Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1852-10-20
wards Mrs. Jones, and murmured, adoes the stitch.

wards Mrs. Jones, and murmured, sdoes the stitch
ing of this band suit you!'' & 9 +Fiis @
i There was roguish smile in the corners of her
pretty mouth; still she tried to look demure.-
Young Hazewell glanced up, started, passed his
hand over his eyes, moved deliberately from his
chair-then while a bewitchingt smile broke like
sun shine all over his face, he exclaimed, "Miss
Ainsly, have indeed the honor!'' and held forth
hand. She bowed gracefully, and extended hers.
What moment! sixty eye-balls glaring, thirty
mouths wide open, dozen knitting needles trans
fixed with astonishment and shining savagely;
twice as many arms stopped in their career, and
awkwardly spread, as if their owners were deliver
ing patriotic orations; twenty long necks strained
from the perpendicular; all grace, circumspection
dignity, forgotten, gone, buried in the graves oi
wonder and curiosity. - q - 5'la. li'<.
ssYcu-youAI-I-i is-perhaps you are mis-
taken,' gasped Mrs. Jones, snatching at her self
possession as adrowning man would at a straw;
ssthis is Miss Lizzie Holmes-a-isn't it!" she
continued, looking round in most ludicrous agony
at her dear friend Mrs. Gilly s',ssfis1 s=i 71i7a
ssExcuse me, madam, my name is Lizzie Holmes
Ainsly; and though an heiress, do not know as
I am entitled to any more attention than Lizzie
Holmes the seamstress,-es especially as the sewing
girl has been very Industrious; don't you think she
has! she added, looking archly up at her employer
Poor Mrs. Jones was in real distress the color
fitted from her cheeks and came again, each time
with an intenser crimson; the minister's son just
comprehending the affair, begged Miss Ainsly to
be seated. Chatting on in tone and with man.
ner as unaffected as before, Lizzie requested the
ladies to consider her seamstress till her sewing
was finished. Some of them, with characteristic
presence of mind entered into the scene with con-
siderable pleasantly; and nimble handed matron
caught up the grapes, the half of which had moi
been distributed, and passed them round again.
But poor Mrs. Jones could not get over her NOR
tifcation; and how was it enhanced when young
Hazewell said, "These grapes, Miss Ainsly, taste
very much like some grapes had at your sisters
last night %
81 presume they are the sarne,' replied the young
lady, demurely. sI think sister Elden's grapes the
best have ever eaten.
A new revelation! ,Whatprevented Mrs. Jones
from falling right flat on the floor" she declare:
she never did know. Here she and others had
been revilng Mrs. Eden in the very presence O
her sister. And more than Mrs. Jones looked theil
shame and distress; it was considered good joke
when the offence laid mainly, at that worthy wo
mans door, but it assumed more serious aspect
when dozen burning cheeks, and many fast
beating heart bore evidence to their sin and slander
In a short time Mrs Jones' parlor was vacated
and the poor woman, humbled and repented, wet
her pillow with many tears that night. The gen
erous nature Of Lizzie Ainsly, who thus undertook
to teach personally moral lesson, readily forgaye
| the Sights put upon her, as the unknown seams
tress; and while in after years the affair passet
| into oblivion, the moral did not. ,.,5z,
:, Mrs. Jones now makes it point of conscience
to treat the yeriest awkward menial with as mucl
respect as she would any one ofthe squire's family
| and you cannot find more cautious woman thar
she when speaking of her neighbor's; indeed, il
the latter virtue she is pattern to the villagers
and she acknowledges to much more happiness
than ever she enjoyed as petty, slanderer. -,
= And what of Miss Ainslya Only that one glo
rions night there was a grand wedding ddiing in tht
squirrels rich old mansion, and the bride SO beau
tly attred M din il m pure, white q muslin was Lizzit
herself II tf.. -, 81 sss....gt
/ If you should ever happen to be intimate witt
Mrs. Jones, reader-which it possible you may
4 she will, in someag agarrulousr moment, produce I
pretty little frock with pink rose and two ittl'
green leaves worked upon its bosom; and then sh'
will tellsyou, that the Honorable Mrs Hazewell
whose husband is senator, you know, worked tha
for her, with her own hands. Whether she vii
father commit herself, is not known to,
Your humble servant Z Y,gs sssM a. D.