Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1852-11-11
TIT-I-FTT . :
GLOR VIM a.

| announced US Ieauy W iSSuS So PA~'So'
with held from the eagerly expecting worlds' ae.r
Al,terary friend. in Paris, had given me letter
of introduction TO Lady Morgan, and had been
but two or three days in Dublin, when called to
present it, and took my seat in her boudoir, after
the usual preliminaries with some such remark as
the above. laA s5.a ttaa lE-LJlT gEE Jclsl
| The right key was touched, and the vanity, or
more properly, pride Of authorship responded to
my appeal Beauty was not there, to reward NE
with her s,nile was there the graceful attempt
to conceal the peasurable emotion my compliment
occasioned. The lips fastened TO convey the sats-
faction the eyes had already indicated, and the
countenance grew bright with Intellectual gratif-
cation; as expressive and engaging as the blush
which well timed flattery brings TO the cheek of
conscious loveliness. Then TOO, it was sincere,
and the party on whom it was conferred was aware
of it. was young-of an age when poetry and
romance were not, as now, matters OF light con-
Germ to me, and those were days in which produc-
tions, of merit, in these departments, came but
seldom,-days long since gone by, when authors
| were rare, and wondered at; and the announce
ment of new novel, or new poem held eapec-
! tation on tiptoe. When the dit of her Ladyship,
but one Sydney owensen, and one Tommy Moore,'
had it proceeded from other lips than her own,
would have met response and approval from nu-
merous andintelligent class of readers who revel-
led in her romance, while they affected to ridi-
cueit
"Ahl Nh. b., was the animated reply, "the
world, indeed! but then, you Americans SO
gallant; so apt at agreeable compliment. They
tell me too" she continued, "my works appear al
most as soon in your country in our own, and
| are read -"
"With at least equal delight, my lady, has
tened 10 interpolate.
| My fortune was made in this quarter, and an in
vitation TO small party at her ladyship's for the
! evening. was fhe commencement of practical ac-
acknowledgement of word spoken in season.
The party was not numerous, nor was it what
the fashionable world would call brilliant. Her
Iladyship's establishment was small, and its ap-
pontnents moderate scale of expense-she
owed little 10 birth, fortune. and her title, de-
rived from her husband, Sir Charles Morgan, brought
with it no emolument. He had been created a
Knight of St. Patrick, by the Marquis of Abe,coon,
in whose family he was employed as tutor, while
his Lordship was Viceroy of Ireland, and in which
Lady Morgan, then Miss Owensen, held the situa-
ton OF governess. But the evening passed off de-
| lightfully. Among the guests, were some rising
stars, just beginning TO shed their lustre on the
hemisphere of talent. Philips, who had become
conspicuous for exhuberance in Irish rhetoric
4 "adding another hue to the rainbow''-w hose eu-
| logy on Washington, and tribute TO Napoleon had
| found admirers among the lovers of ornate elocu
ton, was present, butwaS evidently declining from
his zenith, to make room for ga Mr.. North" point
ed out to his superior in genius, and promise.
| Both, however, were charming men, and only en-
deavored, this occasion, to rival each other in
| promoting the delights of the evening. a'
| But our hostess, and her sister, Lady Clarke,
whose husband, Sir Charles, also owed his title TO
| the Vice Royal accoade, were the divinities of
| this social temple, and, despite some little con-
| ceits, at which the preeieur might have smiled,
| we've evidently regarded by their worshippers with
pride and affection, and the stranger, myself will
lingly united in approval of exertions in which
talent, wit, and animation could not fail of en-
tertainment.
Lady NJ. was not tall, and might have been pref
ty, but for little too much health in figure and
complexion, and n cast in one of her dark eyes,
which had the usual effect of impaiIing the impress
sion of what would otherwise have been liy,ly and
agreeable. She fitted from guest to guest, dis
tributing amusing uifles where graver subjects
would have been out of place; while her sister,
blonde, in whom rhe genius of meniment prevail
ed, sparkling from her laughter-loving eyes, and
irradiating features sufficiently in repose to
admit OF description, presided at the piano, regal
ing us with music and songs of Irish character and
humor, as if intent to
"send the soul, upon a Jig, to heaven
There was about Lady NJ, as she then appeared,
none Of the personal characteristics of Glorvina,
and few of the moral. Had she drawn from self,
in any of the portraits of her heroines, that of the
Dutchess of Belmont, in O'Donnell, would have
been more like the original; more truthful in re-
se1nblancc, than the ovid Irish girl" which Lady
Clarke might have looked, but was too full of en-
joucnent, to personate; for, beitremembered, the
wild, in that instance, applied rather to the con-
dition and circumstances, than to the disposition
and department of the heroine There was moth
ing of the recluse about Lady Morgan, nothing re-
firing, nothing of timidity. I'm peu hop manieree,
she has been accused of affectation, aud not with
out reason; but then we should distinguish be-
tween that which is venial and vicusional in sc
MUS, and the constant and intolerable pretention
of frivolity. There are women in whom there is
just enough of it to be charming; but it is some
thing more than the imsy artificial of Miss in her
teens, or OF the Lydia Languish of the season, in
both of which it is rather corporeal than sentiment
tai. The heart, the mind, and the sensibilies are
engaged in the playful coquet1yi and the loves
and graces take part in the delicate fnesse with
which accomplished beauty spreads her tolls
Languor without inanity, emotion without effort,
fancifu illusions, agreeable conceits, and womau's
pure imaginings are in this alliance, and envy
not him who could be nsensible to its influence,
or who would censure its lovely Inconsistencies.
They offend no virtue, and violate no rule, but
such as the cold formaity of prudery has imposed.
or art invented as restraint nature, and which,
but too often serves ~ Nlt- r.
"To mar the charms they cannot hide"