The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1854-05-27


fast was there ifpoor Flora possessed strength
to avail herself it. Her delicate health for
babe this, and she awaited the arrival of some
one to inform her that custom prevails of
brcaklasting in the morning. TO do Flora JUS
ticc, she had really little inclination to cat.
After doing nearly an hour upon the sofa,
she was awakened by the voice of her mother.
"Whcn did you come down, my dear? I
have just left your room, and was surprised
to find you had risen without assistance WHY
did you not ring for your maid 2"
'Oh she kills me with her inccssant pirate.
My head is too weak to endure the scnscless
gabblc of a woman who undertakes to tell me
| could survive walk before breakfast"
"You have not yet breakfastcd, Flora 2"
ono mother"
After her mother had prepared her coffee,
and placed the toast npon the table, Flora ac-
tually had the grace to exert herself to go to
it, instead of permitting her mother to roll the
table to the sofa, as thckind parent proposed.
She drank her coffee without sugcr, and ate
nothing. After an hour more spent upon the
couch, the delicate girl repaired to her room
to dress. The feat accomplished, with the aid
of her maid or her mother, or both, at twelve
Flora was ready to receive calls or attend to
her french or music. It was arrant malice in
the maid to assert that Flora could actually
use Florida Water or Eau dc Cologne as a
tonic-to be taken internally-bu an inodi-
nate quantity of such articles certainly disap-
pcarcd from her dressing table,
At one, Mrs. Blanchard daily cntrcatcd her
daughter to take some rcfrcshmcnt. at was
so long still to dinner time, and she had eaten
no breakfast Upon these occasions Flora
was always obcdcnt: and some preparation
Of alcohol under the disguise of ''liqncur,"
noycau' or ''amour parfait' rewarded her
obedience. This with cake, or such light
matter in heavy quantities, so refreshed her
that she had animation enough to assent to
walk, OF even to propose one. Nobody who
had seen Mrs. Blanchard and her now bcauti-
full daughter descend the front steps to the
street, could have thought that the lively,
| happy looking girl was in delicate health.
| Poor girl-she was though, and her fits CT
weakness were intermittent; always occurring
in the vicinity of the houses of acquaintance
who knew her weak state, and had not joined
in the fanatical crusade against the good things
of this life. Often when the fatigue of the
walk was very oppressive, the mother and
daughter would call at the store of famous
confcctioncr, whose wife had always for sale
excellent preparations for ladies of delicate
health, kept in fancy bottles, adorned with
French labels, and dgnifcd with French
names. New England distillcries supplied
the basis of these foreign compounds.
In the sixteen years over which we have
jumped, the health of Flora 5 father and moth
cr had been slowly failing. The father was
not m incorporate man, but temperate
drinkcr, who only took medicine enough to
drive disease out of his body into his counte-
nance. This keeping disease on the surface is
certainly not putting the best face on the mat
ter; but Mr.. B. was sensible gentlemen of
the old school, who was reared before the
modern stuff about temperance came into
fashion. lie regarded it as the very height of
mcanncss to speak of money spent for his
health in cognac, as a part of his expenses
which was unnecessary and worse than USE
less. lie would as soon have thought of scri
ously debating whether he could not get along
without bread as of cutting OFF his brandy bot
tle and of wines his cellar supplied all sorts
of excellent brands. To be sure govt and a
but if a man under course of medical treat
mcnt with the best products of the vine and
the still, suffered all this, what would have
become of him without remedial precautions?
Mrs B. was not educated in the lap of lux
ury, as she was educating her daughter. Had
she suffered from delicate health in her infan-
cy, there is no knowing what would have be-
come of the good woman. 1t is more than
possible that she might have lived to her teens,
and thence to her twentics, without once dis
covering it. Such lamentable lack of knowl-
edge of ones own condition would have been
tcrrible-and yet there is no positive assur-
ance that Mrs. B. was not for years in precise
ly that prcdicamcnt. However, the nurses
care at the time of the birth of her first and
only child, and her subsequent maternal So
licitude and attentions removed this unfortu-
nate ignorance. She discovered that she was
an invalid, in delicate health, and her weak
ness increased as her daughter grew older and
could commisserate with and advise her. The
two nursed their delicate health together but
the mother could not enjoy delicate health to
such perfection as her daughter did. Perhaps
she took stronger remedies
Delicate health is no improver of the tenn
per or the conduct. Mr. and Mrs Blanchard
were as scluplously polite to each other as
they were before the whole family became
thus invaded. They We're perhaps more
pohtc-for the refinement of politeness and
very sublmity of good breeding consists in
the ability to torment and insult, without
descending to vulgarity. However, their lives
i. i Il