Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-08-20
sYBIL NUGENT AND THE ARTIST


So do [, my dear"
You would be just as good a chap
erOn, and you would enjoy little time
in London
I do not think, Sybil, that am quite
past that yet"
Then we will 90. We will take lodg
ings in Il nice part near everything; and
we will shop all the morning, and lunch
at pastry cooks, and shop all the after
noon, and go to the theater in the even
ING And, when we are tired Of all that,
we will come back to dear Nutting, and
the dogs, and mare, and COWS"
Il little change win be very nice, ="
said Miss Emily Needham, who always
acquiesced, and was generally loved in
consequence That she had not been
particularly loved was a loss to som
one, for she would have made an adj
mirablc wife Her husband would have
got his own way in everything; but per
haps that would have been bad for him,
too, and Miss Emily's celibacy was prob
ably al tor the best.
1t was very convenient for SYPHILIS step
father, Gen. Won Flopdollingen, Il Ger
man soldier and politician, who married
an English widow with one inCumbranCe,
and. when lie lost the former felt rather
hampercd by the latter. He kept her at
school as long as possible; but, when
she reached the age Of twenty-One, she
was independent, as she inherited her
own fathers fortune, which was nice
little property The General, indeed,
would have liked her to live with him,
become naturalizcd, and bestoW her hand
and what was in it on one Of his ncphewS;
and to this end she spent several holidays
in Prussia, and might have left school
some years sooner if she had shown
wish to live abroad. But she called the
soil Of the Tcuton Stcp-fatherland, and
did not care much for her cousins Ger
man. So Gen. Won Flopdollingen, Who
had promised to look after her interests,
and who was Il conscientious man in pri
vate life, was puzzled, till Miss Emily
Necdham was suggested as fitting com
panion for her young and sprightly rela-
tive, when he gladly accepted her ser
vices
As for Sybil Nugent herself she was
pleased enough to have Cousin Emily,
who had always been favorite, to live
with her She made an effort at first to
promote her into an aunt, but the famil
lar " Cousin Emily" rose to her lips, and
the attempt had to be given up. Lastly,
the service suited the elder lady capt
tally She was poor and lonely and she
liked comfort and cOmpanionship. A
trip to London would be very agreeable;
and SO they resolved upon the excursion.
There was 4 difficulty. Sybil asked En-
lily if she knew any one at all in London.
Cousin Emily thought awhile and then
said: There is Jane, Mrs. Hinchbrook's
ladv's maid, who married and settled in
London, where she lets lodgings. Ihave
her address somewhere"
LII .I,aI SN-lNIl Dn1.
haps they are vacant and we can have
them. Find out where she lives at once,
there's dear"
Cousin Emily's huge rosewood desk
Welded up card which announced that
Mrs Rogers had genteel apartments, re-
plete with every comfort, in Cover
street.
1T must be in quite fashionable
part said Sybil consulting a map, be
cause it is near Oxford street and the
British Museum"
SoCousin Emily wrote to Mrs. Rogers,
who had been many years in the service
of her principal crony in the Cathedral
City, and to whom she had presented a
work-boX on her marriage; and received
4 reply by return of post to the effect
that, by the most extraordinary accident
in the world, her drawing-room floor was
vacant.
SO one fine October day the young
maid and the old one found themselves
transferred from their bright, roomy
home in the country to dingy London
lodgings, which Sybil commenced at
once to brighten up with flowers.
They then commenced a life which the
male mind shudders to contemplate
life of shopping. Not that Sybil had
many wants, or made many purchases,
but those which she did make went a
prodigiouS way. Surprising she deter
mined to get Il mantilla, do YOU think
they went to the nearest shop for such
things and bought one? Not bit of it.
They looked in all the windows which
displayed such things in st. PauIs
Churchyard, Oxford street and Regent
street, and, when they saw something
which pleased them, they went inside
and overhauled the whole stock, diverg-
ing at the shopman'S instigation into
every article of female costume, from
ball-dresses to stockings, and then left,
saving they would think about it.
When hungry they turned into pastry
cooks shops, and ate ices and sweet
cakes. About five o'clock they were eN-
hausted and went home To tea; after
which they sailed out again TO theater,
4 concert, or an entertainment, and then
wound up the day with hearty supper
This kind Of life was all very well for
the young one, who had the constitution
of a cassowary, but at the end of three
DAYS Cousin Emily fell i'll. Sybil was
much concerned and wanted to call in a
doctor, but the invalid did not consider
that necessary.
II think, dear" said she, meekly,
:. that if we were to dine sometimes l
should be able to stand it all well
enough"
So they adopted more regular habits,
and Sybil left of working her chaperon
50 hard, obtained books from a library,
hired piano, and started piece of silk
fiower-work But as her constitution
and habits demanded good deal of eX-
ercise. and she could not walk about
London alone, she fraternized strongly
with the landlady, Mrs. Rogers, and took
her about with her, as the best thing in
the circumstances.
Mrs. Rogers was a lady of considerable
conversational powers, but perhaps she
was most graphic when she talked about
her dodgers, past and present Her
ground floor was now occupied by an old