Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-07-14
The Charming Woman.

Full of home affection and the ten
derest sentiment as she is, the charm
ing woman does sometimes the Oddes
looking things, which a rough littl
domestic creature, without graceful
pretensions, would not dream of do
ing. Her child is lying dangerOusl,
i'll, perhaps dying, and she appears a
the grand ball of the season, subdued
certainly-hOw well thatsweet melan
choly becomes her but always grace
full, always thoughtful for others, anC
attentive; and though, indeed, she
will tell you she does not know how
she got dressed at all, she is in sucl
a state of cruel anxiety, yet she is un-
| deniably the best dressed woman in
| the room, and the most carefully ap-
pointed. 1t is against her own will
| that she is there, you may be sure,
but she has been forced to sacrifice
herself, and tear herself away for an
hour. The eXigenc lies of society are
so merciless-the world is such ter
rible Juggernaut, she says, raising her
eyes with plaintive earnestness to
yours in the breathing times of the
waltz. She has another trial if her
husband is ordered out to Canada or
the West Indies. Dearly as she loves
him, and though she is heart broken
at the idea of separation, yet her
health cannot stand the climate, and
she must obey her Doctors orders
She is so delicate, you know-all char
ming women are delicate-and the
doctor tells her she could not live six
months either in Toronto or Port Roy
al. If he had to go on diplomatic ser
vice to st. Petersburgh or Madrid, she
might be able to stand the climate
then; but that is different. 4 dull
station without any other favorite
pleasures, would be more than she
could bear; so she remains behind,
goes out greatly into society, and
writes her husband tender and anus
ing letters once a month.
The charming woman is the gent
lest of her sex. She would not do
cruel thing nor say an unkind word
for the world. When she tells YOU
the unpleasant things which ill-na-
tured people have said of your friends
or hers, she tells them in the sweetest
and dearest way imaginable. She is
so sure there is not 4 syllable of truth
in it all and what shame it is. that
people should be so ill-natured! In
the gentle tone of sympathy and dep
recation peculiar to her, she gives YOU
all the ugly and uncomfortable reports
that have come to her, of which YOU
have never heard breath until this
moment; yet it is you who are stupid,
for she tells them to you as if they
were of patent notoriety to the whole
world; only she does not believe them
remember She takes the most scru-
pulOus care TO deny and defend as she
retails, and you cannot class her with
the tribe of ill-natured whom she CEN
sures, setting, as she does, the whole
strength of her gentle words and gem
erous disbelief to oppose these ugly
Yet you wish she had not
told you. Her disclaimers spring so
evidently from the affeetionate amia-
bility of her own mind, which can
not bear to think evil, that they have
not much effect upon you. The ex-
cuse dies away from your memory, /
but the ill-savored report roots, and
you feel that you have lost your res
pect for your former friends forever;
Or, if they were only hers, that moth /
ing should tempt you to know them. /
There is no smoke without some fire,
you think and the charming woman |
caDnot possibly have kindled the |
1ames herself out of sticks and leaves
md rubbish of her own Collecting
But how sweet and charitable she was
when she told you! How much you /
owe her for her tenderness of nature /
What guiltless and delightful erea-
ure she is.-LOHOlOn Saturday Re- /
,iclD.