The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-11-10
PRISCILLA.

4 tAioo'
who have made q business of 1t ii
any such should honor this poor littl'
e story with their attentiOn,) will
iglance down the opening paragraph
b for a description of the heroinei
tresses. The opening sentences o
] Miss Braddon are enough to show
: how important a thing head of hail
: is in the getting up of heroine fo1
D the popular market. But rs my
heroine is not gotten up for the mark
! ct, and as Icannot possibly rementbel
even the color of her hair or her eye.
as / recall her now, / fear shall dis
appoint the professional, whose
never feel that they have complete
heroine till the "long waving tresses
of raven darkness, reaching nearly tC
the ground, envelOping her as with a
cloud have been aTtistically stuck
on by the author. But he it known
that | take Priscilla from memory,
and not from imagination. And the
memory of Priscilla, the best girl in
the school, the most gifted, the most
modest, the most gentle and true, is a
memory too sacredto be tritled with.
would not make one hair light or
dark, would not change the shading
of the eyebrows. Priscilla is Priscilla
forever, to all who knew her. And
as | cannot tell the precise color of
her hair and eyes, | shall not invent
la shade for them. | remember that
she was on tie blonde side ofthe grand
division line. But she was not blonde.
She was-Priscilla. / mean to say
that since YOU never lived in that dear
old fOgy Ohio River village of New
Geneva, and since, consequently, you
never knew our Priscilla, no words Of
mine can make you exactly under
stand her. Was she handsome? No
yes. She was ''iimber-ja -jawed, that
is, her lower teeth shut little outside
her upper. Her complexion was not
faultlcss. Her face would not bear
criticism. And yet there is not one
of her old schOolmatcs that will not
VOW that she was beautiful. And
| indeed she was. For she was Priscil
In. And never can make you un-
derstand it. . .
| As Priscilla was always willing to
Obligc amy one, it was only natural
! enough that Mrs. Lesion should send
for her TO help entertain the Marquis,
! II was n curious chance that threw
! the young Marquis d. EntremOnt for
/ whole summer into the society of our
| little village. His uncle, who was his
! guardian, piOus Gbbc, wishing to
| remove him from Paris to get him
out of socialistic Influences, had sent
! him to New Orleans, consigned To the
care of the great banking-hOuse of
! Challeau, Lafort ct Compagnie. Not
! liking to take the chances of yellow
! fever i'm the summer, he had resolved
to journey TO the north, and as Chal-
! leau, LafOrt et C.c, had a correspond
( ent in Henry Lesion, the young law
yer. and ~ French was abundantly
| spoken ia our Swiss village of New
Geneva, what more natural than that
/ they should dispatch the Marquis 10
our pleasant town of vineyards, Civ
| ing him letter of intro 1uction to
/ their attorney, who fortunately spoke
some book French. He had present
! cd the letter, had been invited TO din
ncr, and Priscilla HaincS, who had
| learned French in childhood, though
! -hU was not Swiss, was sent for to
| help entertain the guest.
cannot but fancy that 'EntremOnt
was surprised nj meeting just such a
girl a. Priscilla in a rustic village.
| She was not abaShed at finding her
self uiS-Q-UiS with Il noblcman, nor
/ did She seem at all anxious 10 attract
his notice. The vanity of the Mar
quis must have been little hurt nj
/ finding a lady that did not court his
attention. But wounded vanity soon
gave place 10 another surprise. Even
Mrs. Lesion, who understood not one
word of the conversation between
her husband, the Marquis, and Pris-
ella, was watching for this second
surprise, and did not fail to read it in
| a. 'IntremOnt's eyes. Here was a
young woman who had read. She
/ could admire Corinnc, she could op-
pose Saint Simon. The Marquis
'Entrcmout had resigned himself To
| the eBRui of talking to Swiss farmers
about their vineyards, of listening 10
Swiss grandmothers telling stories OF
! their childhood i'm Neufchatel and
| BeTne. But to find in this young
village school teacher one who could
| speak, and listen while he spoke, of
! his favOrtte writers, was - hIm very
/ strange. Not that Priscilla had read
many French books. for there were
not many within her reach. But she
had read some, and she had read Ste.
/ Beuvc and Grimm'E Correspondence,
and he who reads these two has heard
the echo Of all the great voices in
| French Literature. And while David
/ Haines had lived his daughter had
wanted nothing 10 help her to the
| highest culture.
But think what amazed the Mar
quis most was that Priscilla showed
no consciousness of the unusual char
actcr Of her attainmcnts. She spoke
| easily and naturally of what she
| knew, n if il Were Z matter of course
that the teacher of primary school
should have read COrneille, and
should be able to combat Saint Simon
ism. As the dinner drew To close,
Lesion lifted his chair round where
his wife sat and interpreted the brilli-
ant conversation at the other side of
the table.
suspect that Saint Simon had
lost some of his hold upon the Mar
quis since his arrival in n country
where life is more beautiful and the
manner of thought more practical.
Atany rate, he dated the decline OF
his sOcialistic opinions from his dis
cussion with Priscilla Haines.
The next Sunday morning he stroll
ed out Of I.c Vert House, breathing
the sweet air peFfumed with the bios
SONS of . thousand apple-treGs. For
what yard is there in New Geneva
that has not apple-trces and grape
vines? And every family i'll the vii
laprn and
wears bell, and every bell is on a
different key; SO that the three things
that penetrated the senses of the Mar
quis on this Sunday morning were
the high hills that stood sentinels Oh
every hand about the valley in which
New Geneva stood, the smell Of the
apple blossoms, aud the taklC and
tqnkIe and tORkje Of hundreds of bells
on the cows grazing on the "com-
mon," as the open lots were called.
On this almost painfully quiet morn
ing. d'Entremont noticed the people
going one way and another to the
Sunday-schools in the three churches.
Just Is he came to the pump that
stood in front of the ''public square,"
he met Priscilla. At her heels were
ten ragged little rutiians, whom she
was accustomed TO have come to her
house every Sunday morning and
walk with her IL Sunday-schOOl.
''YOu are then Sister of Charity
also" he said in French, bowing low
with sincere admiration as he passed
her. And then tn himself the young
Marquis reflected: 1--WE Saint ST.
monfsts theorize and build castles i'll
Spain for poor people, but we do not
take hold ofthem." He walked clear
round the square, and then followed
the steps of Priscilla into the little
brick Methodist church, which in
that day had neither steeple nor bell,
which had nothing church like about
il except the two arched front win
dows. There was not even fence to