Litchfield enquirer., 1875-11-18
rFron H4rper's 1fssszine.l THE MODERN PSYCHE.
CHAPTER |.

s"e N3OD&WA F9sSH@s -z sz Noi | do not knor by what accident it xas that EdHard Ross came. to spend "a l Essk ia Angnst at the C0lnnhaa Hossl, q Hermon SprinRa !, -. -. .s = :, | !, Noi and | do net know by '' what .coi- dent it was that all the Yerneys were there. The home of the Verneys is at Painted Post. as I suppose Ion know. Bnt this year the Verneys took a holiday ! for month at the Columbia Hotel, and while they were away from home the cell | in9s were whitened, the house painted in side and out. and new railings were added to the outside steps at the side door.
 | What do know is that it was at the Columbia Hotel that Edaard Ross first
 saw Psyche. who was the youngest daugh-
 ter of the Veruey Household All the
 world of the Columbia Hotel had gone
 across to the Solferino House. which was on the other side of the way There was l . hop as the Solferino HouBe. and the gen eral public had gans to the hop. Ross
 had arrived late, the oaly passenger by that little one horse railway from Hudson. He came into the great drawing room. .aad thought he was alone. But he was not 1 alone. Psyche. youngest of the Verney girls, was at the piaHo, not playing. but
 looking over some music which the Jeff frey girls had left there. .it If you had asked the gossips of the ho-
 tel why Psyche did not go to the hop where all her older sisters had gone. you would have been told that she was but half sister of the other Verneys; that since her mother died these three older sisters had held hard rein on poor Psyche: that some one of them had laid down the law that there ~ere so many of them that they must not all go together to any frolic. In the interpretation of this law, Psyche al- ways staid at home if the party were pleasant, and one or two of the older sis ters staid if it were likely to be stupid. This is what the gossips of the hotel
 would have said, and this is what be- lieve. i. s- Anyway, it happened that on this par ticuIar evening Edward Ross threw himself at length on long sofa in the drawing
 room, not knowing that anyone was there. And little Psyche, not knowing that he
 had come in, crooned over the Jefreys' music, and at last picked out something from Mercadante which she had never seen before, and which did not seem to her very difficult. and, after she had read the whole page down, tried it, and tried t again, in her resolute, wide awake, very satisfactory way. asJ ca
 The third time she tried she was quite
 we'll pleased with her own success, and this time, as she came down to the last sta6, upon that first page, Edward Rossis hand appeared on the top of the page screamed nor fiinched. She nodded sim ply: she was under the inspiration of mn
 sic now, and she played well. She played the whole piece through. Then he thank edRher and she thanked him. She played . good deal for him that evening. He brought doan his William Morris and showed it to her and read to her some of the best things in it. And so they spent two hours together very nicely, and by the time the maddening crowd came back from the SolferinO House. Psyche was not in the least sorry that she had not gone fo the hop. and Edward Ross was very glad she had not gone. sfs
 There is . lovely little burn or brook which runs through a shady ravine behind the Columbia House. I forget what they call it. It might be called the Lovers Brook, or the Maiden's Home, or the Fai- ryis Bath. or anything that verdant seven teen thought sweet enough. Age cannot wither nor custom stale its infinite variety. Edward Ross found nc difficulty in mak- ing mp party of the young people at the hotel to go on . picnic psrty up this brook the next day. By some device he made Agnes Yerney think she would stay at home to firt with an old West Indian who was far too gouty to go even to the first fall This left the pretty Psyche free to go. And she went. in the charming adorn- ment of the unadorned simplicity of her pretty mountain walking dress. And there were quite as many gentleman as there were ladies. to help at all the hard lords and lift them at all the steep climb inga. So Priscilla Verney had her cava- men called Bloody Mary" had her Phil ip, and the Garner girls aers taken care of, and the Spragues and the Dunstables. For every g,rl there was a young man i; and if at most of the separating places Edward Ross and my pretty Psyche were together, it was not that they did not their full duty by society; for they did.
 And . very pleasant day it was. That day Jabez Sprague asked Ann Garner to marry him. and she refused him point
 blank: that made it Q very pleasant day to her. That day Tunstan Constable asked
 Martha Jeffrey Go marry him. and she said
 she would: that naade it very pleasant day to her. They all came home at five CT six in the afternoon. very bright and jolly most of them, and those who were not bright and jolly pretended they were. EdwaSd Ross had not asked Psyche to mar " him, but I believe they had enjoyed the day as much as anyone.
 Re had found out that this simple, shy pretty little thing. who was snubbed in the household, who was left 10 the cold in their arranGements, and seemed Co have no friends, had, all the same. . sweet. hap py, eontsuted temper; that she- had her own notions and enthusiasms about books and men and duties; that she could not be made tO say that yellow was whits, or even that crimson was scarlet; that she never said she understood e thing bnt could not express herself. or that she knew 6 thing
 unless she did know it. He found wO-
 man of principle under the form and method and semblance of child.
 iRAnd she had found out man ss fond of ferns as she was. who knew every fern in this glen, and every fern like it in the Himalayas. a man as fond of music az she
 was, who could not play as well as she could, and yet he had heard Chopin play. had seen the Hugenots in Paris. and had u1uc0 Wibu x@8uk 8Uu D0uuGbb 1u0 AOUe Lisxt himself. This man loved her heroes, though he had travelled in stage coach Resds rs mol quite st home ia Mrs Tighs or Apu-
 eius be gisd to revive their memories a the
 cirns Fsyehs Dy this nsss from tas Cycsopsds. Ths
 pretest rendering 0f that story is William M0r1ss Earthly Faradzse; bus the render vii himself e.
 r0usiy whether be anything bat allegSry e the moral in ths mztter-of fact tale b<f0re hfm-
 Rsyehe, whose two elder slzters were of moderate
 besaty, lovely tzs se taken fer vezns her.
 seH. aud dared oaly to sdsre heg eodsss. Bot
 to bye AsE fhB excied tAs jealeasy ef yen1s, who
 t0 revenge bsrse ordered Cupid to inspire her wsfh
 lore fer soDe eenfemptble wretch. But Cupid fe1 ia
 laEe wnh her hiDseiL Meznwhile her fzxhex, desir-
 ing fo his dsNghfsR maxsd, consulted the oracle
 0f Appolla. yhieh eon.aandsd thzt Psyche sboud b&
 eosssyed u1sh fansxzl rfes fs fhs summit of mOun-
 tain. snd shsse fo s if for as sss destined to bs
 the bride 0 a6ssfrscsige nsOusteE. in fhs form of
 dragod fssred by gOda snd men. With sorsOw was the
 oracle Obeged and fyehs left alone the des>E1
 rock, when saadaqiy Zpher hovsrs around her. gensy
 and fraaspofs hex Co henfdtul palace of the god cf love- wh0 FrsitB her every night unseen aud
 unm0wny eavng her ak the eppxaaeh af dsy. Rszfees \ Aafp akxe-