The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1852-04-03

from one end Of the instrument to the
other-prodigious displays of strength
on the part Of the fair performer-a ter
rifle shake wv hat desperate exertion !"
thought the General; "and all to produce
a soulless noise. Then followed fear
full banditti of octaves-another crash,
louder and more prolonged than the rest;
and she looked up with triumphant
smile-a smile conveying the same idea
as the pause of an opera dancer after a
most wonderful ptrouene.
"Do you keep tuner in the house,
my dear young LADY," inquired the
General.
If look could have annihilated. he
would have crumbled into ashes; but he
only returned it with admiration, think
ing, "How astonishly like her aunt,
when she refused me the second time!"
"And that is fashionable music, Miss
Montford7 | have lived so long out of
England, only hearing the music of
Beethoven, and Mozart, and Mendeh-
sohn, | was not aware that that noise
was substituted for power, and that exc
cutlon had banished expression. Dear
me, why, the piano is vibrating at
this moment! Poor thing! How long
does piano last you Miss Montford ="
Isabel was losing her temper, when
fortunately her aunt-stil Miss We're
came to the rescue. The lovers of
thirty years past, would have met any
where else as strangers. The once
rounded and queen-like form of the ell
der Isabel was shorn of its grace and
beauty; of all her attributes, of all her
attractions, dignity only remained; and
ii was that high-bred, innate dignity
which can never be acquired, and is new.
er forgotten. She had not lost the
eighth of an inch of her height, and her
gray hair was braided in full folds over
her fair but wrinkled brow. Isabel
Mphtford looked so exactly what Isabel
We're had been, that General Gordon
was sorely perplexed; Isabel We're if
truth must be told, had taken extra pains
with her dress; her niece had met the
General the night before, and her like.
ness to her aunt had so recalled the past,
that his promised visit TO his old sweet
heart Gas he still called her) had hutter-
ed and agitated her more than she
thought it possible an interview with
any man could do; she quarreled with
her beautiful gray hair, she cast off her
black velvet dress disdainfully, and put
on blue .Notre antique. (She rcmem-
bered how much the Captain-no, the
GENERAL once admired blue) She was
not coquette; even gay hair at fifty
five does not cure coquttry where it has
existed in all its strength; but, for the
sake of her dear niece, she wished to
look as well as possible. She wonder.
Q | why she had so often refused "pocr
Gordon" She been all her life oftoo
delicate mind TO be husband hunter,
too well.satisiied with her position to
calculate how it could be improved, and
yet, she did not hesitate to confess to
herself that now, in The commencement
of old age, however verdant it might
be, she would have been happier, of more
consequence, of more value, as a mar.
RED woman. She had too much good
sense, and good taste, to belong to the
class Of disconnected females, consisting
Of husbandless and childless women,
who seek to establish laws at war with
the laws of the Almighty; SO, if her
heart did beat little stilIly, and sundry
passages passed through her brain in
connection with her old adorer, and
what the future might be-she may be
forgiven, and will be, by those not
strong-minded women who understand
not enough Of the way-wardness of hu.
man nature to know that, ifyoung heads
and old hearts are sometimes found to-
gether, SO are young hearts and old
heads. The young laugh to scorn the
idea of Cupid and crutch, but Cupid
has strange vagaries, and at any moment
can barb his crutch with the point of
an arrow.
"The old people," as Isabel NJ ontford
irreverently called them that evening,
did not get on well together; they were
in a great degree disappointed one with
the other. They stood up to dance the
minuet de la cour, and Isabel We're lam
guished and swan as she had never
done before; but the General only won
dered how stiff she had grown, and ho-
ped that he was not as i'll used by time
as Mistress Isabel We're had been. At
first, Isabel Monttord thought it 'good
fun to see the antiquities bowling and
curtseying, but she became interested in
the lingering courtlness of the little
scene, trembled lest her aunt should APP
pear ridiculous, and then wondered how
she could have refused such man as
General Gordon must have been.
Days and weeks flew fast; the Gener-
al became a constant visitor in the
square, and the heart of Isabel We're had
mayor heafop or lon6l,, ~ f,uant, "a