M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1857-01-22

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tocratic world. Peers and peeresses,
prelates and statesmen, even royalty
itself seemed to do homage to their
unrivalled charms, Throngs ofadmi.
rers worshipped at the shrine of their
beauty and distinguished from the rest
by his naughty bearing and the gilt
tering star upon his breast, a duke
knelt at the feet of her youngest born,
her bright haired Lizzie and she
thought upon that regal brow the airy
coronet, formed of the ducal strawber.
ry leaves, rested as ifit had found a fit
abiding place. Delighted, she awoke,
and with the glittering vision still fill
ing her imagination, she started to
find herselfin her own humble cot
tage and her children still sleeping be-
meath the tree.
She mentioned her dream to none,
but the memory oft fingered for years,
and with a mothers fond partiality
she whispered, "why should not such
things be z"
Time sped on, and our heroines in
creased in beauty and years; they re-
ceived the best education the place
could afford; and the worthy cure, see
ing that their minds scared far above
mediocrity as well as their persons,
formed their ductile powers to such a
degree that they were soon fit to grace
any circle.
When Louisa was about seventeen
their mother died; and on her death
bed exacted a solemn promise from her
husband, that before the expiration of
six months he should take them to
London; then for the first time, rela-
ting her dream, she begged him to re-
main there year at least, and at the
end of that time if they had not at
tracted notice, he might return with
them to his native village. Had it
been anywhere but at the dying bed Of
his wife, Matthew Cunning might
have smiled at the ascendency which
the imagination had been allowed
to gain over tue judgment; but al
though he desired no higher destiny
for his children than to see them the
wives of respectable men in their own
sphere of lite;still he would not refuse
her last request, and made the requir-
ed promise. Gould he have foreseen
the future
AS soon as the daughters could be-
come reconciled to tie thoughts oflea-
wing the grave of their beloved moth
er, and the many endearing associa-
tions of their childhood, for the vast
city, where they would bo "unknow-
ing and unknown" they started for
the great metropolis. They arrived
there in June, that month whose de-
lights the tyraut Fashion has compell-
ed the aristocracy OF Britain's isle to
forego, and obliged them to remain
in the city when they would fain be
reposing beneath the shade Of those
gigantic trees that wave proudly over
the ancestral homes Of England's
naughty nobility.
Matthew Cunning, willing to full
fill his wiic's wishes as much as posi-
bic, took lodgings in a fashionable ho.
tel, and ere many weeks had elapsed
London was in an uproar. Who were
those angels that had suddenly appear.
ed as from Paradise2 Tho "furore,"
as Horace Walpole calls it, was unpar,
alleled. The young mobiles, whose
tastes were satiated with the usual
London bellies begged their stately
mammas to leave their cards upon our
heroines, ifthey wished them ever to
assist at their monthly balls; and if
the aristocratic parent refused, upon
the plea of their being "nobodies,"
the youthful peers declared they would
repair to the club whenever their
mothers and sisters particularly de-
sired their escort.
And so it went on; day after day,
week after week, the gate Of the hotel
was thronged with England's proud.
est and noblest, and the eyes of the
fair Irelandlasies were almost dazzled
by the array of brilliant names, whose
cards were hourly sent to them and,
even Matthew began to think that his
wife was not so foolish as he had once
deemed her. From the duchess to the
baronet's lady, from the peeress, who
boasted of decent from the Plantage.
nets to the parvenu of yesterday, all
alike strove to do them honor;and more
than once has the proud duchess, in
whose veins flowed the blood of kings,
found her rooms empty on the night
of her most magnificent fete because
why9 she had neglected to invite the
Cummings: and, to her modification,
she would hear that the rooms of the
rich bankers wife were crowded the
same evening by the elite Of the no.
bility, and the magnet of attraction was
the fair sisters. These few solitary
exceptions at length gave way before
the overwhelming tide Of excitement