The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1853-10-20

However little the maid might know
of physiology, she was not to be deceiv
ed by this assumed indifference, anC
plainly read in the depths of her mis-
tress heart how great Il revolution hel
own unlucky sincerity had wrought
With the awkwardness common to per.
sons destitute of tact when anxious tc
repair any mischief they have done, she
aggravated her first blunder by sec.
ond.
"Well, madam, who has not white
hairs ; | have, | know, though an
not twenty yet ~
Not tacenty get ! These words, appa.
rently so insignificant, were like thun-
der clap to Madame de Tourvillc. Never
till that fatal day, had she given her age
a thought. This simple phrase made
her think of it for the first time in her
life. She was long in making out the
inventory Of her years, for, after going
over the reckoning again and again, she
still began once more, astonished at the
result. At last she could not resist the
evidence she was indeed thirty three.
This unexpected discovery plunged
Madame de Tourville into a stupefaction
mingled with unspeakable anguish. She
had, then, unwittingly passed her
thirtieth year, the grand climacteric in
the life of lady Of fashion, and was
fast approaching the bleak season of
forty What a reflection 1t appear
ed to Constance as if she had been reused
from a long enchantment by the stroke
of some magician's wand, and had passed
at once from youth to middle age, from
her apogee to her decline. She longcd
to be alone, that she might consult her
mirror at leisure, and ask that sincere
confidcnt's opinion on the external signs
of the sudden mctamorphosis She
therefore seized the first prctext for dis
missing her maid, then bolted the door
of her room, and FASTENED to her cheval
glass
Nothing changed in her person; still
her noble and elegant figure, her smooth
white shoulders, her graceful and ANNA
ted features, all set off by an undress of.
exquisite taste, such was the whole pre-.
sented by the first glance. But, on
looking closer, she could not but per-
ceive that a treacherous plumpness
to impair her figure, that the
bloom Of her complexion was beginning
to pale and more attentive scrutiny
discovered on her forehead, lately as
smooth as ivory, scarcely pcrceptiblo
trace, the growing lineamcnt Of what
would ere long be wrinkle
In these symptoms, still discreet but
eloquent, Madame lie Tourville recog-
lized with bitterness the first prognostics
IF the /" scar and yellew leaf" She
could no longer conceal from herself
hat she had entered on the downward
path that leads to old age she saw in
he horizon the hour approaching when
'he must bid farewell to the world and
% that transient royalty with which
public opinion invests the leaders of
ashton.
Humiliating and inevitable day I!
That crown which she but now took frap
he brow of a falling favorite will soon
,e transferred from herself to a rival,
'alled by the right Of youth to supplant
Ter in her turn. An object of indiffer-
'nce and neglect, she must follow in the
hade the trinmphal car of the rising
un. At those fetcs Of which she had
,cen and was still the soul and the idol,
he would then be present, obscure, un-
loticed in the crowd of followers
Could there be a more affecting and [
gonizing train of thought for a woman,
dorable and still adored, accustomed to ,
'lease, jealous IT distinction, in word,
mad after incense. |;
With what despair she saw the fatal
erm OF her sway approach, and how ,
hort appeared to her now that flourish
ng period which her gay thoughtlessness I
lever suspected could have an end
low should she fill up the void in her
lie caused by the abandonment which ,
chilled her very heart. II
The more she felt the cup of worldly