The Portland daily press., 1877-03-24
From Blackwoods Magazinel
Lady Adelaide---A Study.

Gall up Will CNCI ybuiuS dUOuU uCl
but that .Ho,o cleuern" cried Elizabeth,
when the lady had departed. at always
comes out In the same tone, and with the
same emphasis. Whatever one does, il it be
but the veriest trife, something that even a
Lady Adelaide could accomplish herself with
out too much trouble, it is sure to obtain that
all-embracing epithet. do not believe her
vocabulary could supply any other note of
admiration. She never rises above it and
never falls below. When she heard that Cap.
tain Webb had swum across the Channel,
sar, she said of us both, 'Hoao clever!"
Her friend laughed.
SIS it not provoking, Anne?"
''Provokingp perhaps, if it were worth be-
ing provoked about"
@You think it is not? But you don't know
till you have been tried. I had rather en-
dure one good sword-cut and have done with
it, than be the victim of thousand lancet
pricks. How often did you hear that little
soft ejaculation during the last half hour
Be on your honor, Aune."
"More than once, confess"
"And you had noticed it?'
"Yes, had"
"Well, was it not, as I said, called forth by
great and small, something's and nothings,
alike? Was it not most absurd comment,
most promiscuously applied, by most stupid
woman? Come, Anne, join me; it will do
you good, or, if not, it will do me good to
hear it. Say what you think, you prudent
Anne; confess, break forth, you fountain of
wisdom, and overflow your banks like Jor-
dan! You had noticed it, you had felt it all
the time, and yet you shake your head, you
knit your brows? Oh, fear you not; shall
say my say and moan my moan, and none
shall stop me. See, am the better for it all
ready. have not-upon my word, have
not felt so charitably disposed towards the
poor dear lady for a long time"
Anne smiling-"That does you credit,
surely. The prick of pin stirs up this tenn
pest, and the tempest subsidies with the same
show of reason wherewith it rose. A storm
in tea-cup, Lizzie. Much ado about"
mot nothing-not nothing, you tiresome
creature; you will not surely pretend to de-
clare that it is nothing?"
"You will not surely venture to affirm that
1t is something's"
81 affirm it and maintain it, Anne"
"Then you are little-foolish, DEAR"
Sand you are very great deal-exasperat-
ing, darling"
Anne smiles, Elizabeth laughs. The door
opens, and footman with uncertain, bewil-
dered steps, approaches the upper end of the
room.
"Mv lady's gloves, ma'am. Under the
sofa, or on the mantel-piece, or on the foor.''
"The locality being so precisely described,
he cannot fail to find them immediately" OBJ
serves his mistress, aside.
"Look on the piano, William"
On the piano the gloves are discovered, and
carried of, doubled up on salver.
''Now i: will be, How cleverv to have
found them so quickly! and with more
grounds for saying so than usual" continued
Mrs. Tresham, with curled lip. "Anne, you
might have pity upon me. What may be
amusing in friend Is torture from relation.
If Lady Adelaide could only be metamor-
phosed into an ordinary acquaintance-a
neighbor even, though not too near at hand
how joyfuly would engage her in CONVEX
sation, nor dream of attempting to clear a
single cobweb off her brains!''
''You would simply despise her more than
ever"
''No, no, no; at least think not"
'You would.''
'And have you no compassion? Yet I
would grieve from my heart if you should
ever have the misfortune to be tackled onto a
Lady Adelaide. What can say more?
Yet l defy you, even you, my mentor, to
twist anything undutiful OF disrespectful out
ofsuch tame conclusion, such paltry eli
max"
Anne, gravely-''She is very kind-hearted
woman"
$50 she is"
"And you have no fault to find with her,
save that she calls you clever?'
"Clevar, not clever. You missed the &C.
cent, dear.'
SIS that her only fault?" perseveres Anne.
.sHum! did not say so; 1 did not go so
far as that. Her only great fault, perhaps
her only perpetual, ever-recurring fault"
"She has no other that you cannot con-
done?"
"Is not this enough? Ibegan years ago by
being called clever child, then l was clev-
err girl, and now am clever woman. I
was tired of the word before I had ever seen
Lady Adelaide; now am perfectly sick of
it,"
CATER all, Lizzie, what baby you arer'
"a baby, if you like. 1 have no objection
at all to being called baby. Nice, little,
soft, fluffy things, made to be petted and
kissed But the other is term of abuse, a
positive insult"
"NonsenseP
SIT is, so applied, by such lips. Nay, Anne,
sweet Anne, frown not so seriously. 1t spoils
thy dimples, Anne, comforts the brow, and
distorts the mouth. 1 say it again, again,
again; will not be called clever woman"
thing"
Elizabeth, confidentially--"But. good
Anne, one word. Were you ever tired Of be-
Lady Adelaide and her new niece.were. as
may have been gathered by the foregoing dia-
logue, perhaps as ill suited to each other as it
was possible for any two people to be.
Elizabeth, gay, triumphant bride, in the
heyday of her charms, little disposed to toler-
ate anything contemplate and ridiculous, was
seriously disturbed by finding in the relation
who of all her newly acquired kindred stood
nearest to her, one who was a perpetual
source of modification.
Yet Lady Adelaide was all that a fine lady
had any need to be.
She was cheerful, gentle, and indolent; in
cllned to patronize bazaars and work-parties
her young friends in general, and Elizabeth
in particular.
Her nephew's wife was quite charming-so
lively, so clever.
It was only pity they did not see more of
each other. John used to be in and out con-
tinually--the Priory had been quite his home;
but that could not be expected now. The