The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-09-27

must be as beautiful as she doubt
less was in the beginning, as intelligent
as-as--let me see! as Lady Jane Grey,
as musical as Jenny Lind, as beautiful
as Cleopatra, as benevolent as Florence
Nightingale-as-as-"
erich as Kreesus!" ventured Mrs.
Bracegirdle.
"No," said, laughing, 81 don't care
a fig for money. I want beauty and
goodness, loveliness of face and SYM
metry of form; but and here l spoke
with positiveness and decision-'s but,
above all, she must have little foot"
Mrs. Bracegirdle slyly withdrew her
plump foot (No. 5's) out of sight within
the mysterious periphery of her black
silk.
GA pretty foot!n
"Two of them, Mrs Bracegirdle A
pair of pretty feet! 1 could not love
Venus herself if she had a big foot! 1t
is impossible but that perfectly beau
tiful woman will have small and pretty
feet. | am willing to choose wife by
aphorism that 'all's well that ends
we'll. 'n IT,. .te
Mrs. Bracegirdle, after taking half a
minute to think upon it, was vastly
pleased with this quotation used in such
a relation, and laughed heartily.
: "Well, well, doctor, you are droll
gentleman, to be sure! You have such
a pleasant temper, you'd make any
woman happy, But there's the bell!
Good Hnotov
"GOOd morning, Mrs. Bracegirdle, :"
l said; and as she closed the door l ad-
ded, sub Uoce, self 1 thought l could
make any woman happy would try
and find some one among the. sex to
make me happy. But this marrying
it is lottery. A man might as safely
draw from a wheel into which all the
pretty and virtuous women's names in
New York were written on slips of pa
per, had been poured, as draw from
them met by chance at a party, at
church or in the street. If it is my des-
tiny to be married, the right pair of
pretty feet will by-and-by catch my eye
tripping along and challenge me-"
Thus soliloquizing, | took my seat by
my window in a huge leathern arm
chair, and drawing match across the
sole of my boot l lighted a cigar and
gave myself up to reflection and in
spection of the passers-by.
"Mrs. Bracegirdle is right" ejacu-
lated at the end of ten minutes; "she
is undoubtedly quite right. l ought to
take wife. But whose wife shall l
take? as young Sheridan asked his IA
ther.n
As the clouds of azure smoke curled
above my head l conjured up, peeping
out of each curl, the faces of some doz-
en- fair girls l had known or still knew.
AS their features blended with the
wreaths and passed in retrospection be-
fore my eyes, I deliberately rejected
each, passing judgment upon them as
they assembled and melted into thin air
beneath the ceiling of my room. One
had nose too blunt; another retrouse
so far as to turn up; third was too
tall, a fourth had too large foot, a
fifth had bad teeth; sixth laughed too
much; a seventh talked too loud, an
eighth had big knuckles; ninth had
a mustache; tenth-a sweet girl
couldn't bear the smell of assafetida,
and of course was out of the question
for DOCTORS wife; an eleventh had a
bad breadth; and the twelfth wore spec
tacles-my abomination in young
girl.
These feminine faces all ascend
ed above my head, and disap.
peared slowly into thin air
evaporated with the smoke which
had reproduced them. Yet somehow a
sweet face seemed to linger in the blue
cloud that curled from my cigar. Hel
blue eyes, her pleasant smile, her grace
full head and shoulders, her exquisite
hands and Incompatible feet-alI were
once more visible to me as | had before
seen them, and almost fallen in love with
their possessor. But alas! she was my
sousin, and / had been informed by Fan.
ny's Puritan mother that it was a mortal
sin to marry cousins, for the Bible said
so. So l let this sweet face also melt
away toward the ceiling (an ascending
angeD, and sighed, half resolving tc
turn Roman Catholic that might get a
''dispensation'' from the Pope ''to mar.
ry cousins" But her mother and the
Bible, how could l 60 against both9 Sc
! saw the features Of my fair and merry
cousin fade away with sorrow.
Not one of these will do,"I said
shaking my head and also shaking the
ashes off my cigar. | then carelessly
glanced out of my window preparatory
to reviewing another dozen of marrying
acquaintance. At that instant a lovely
girl was going by on the opposite side
of the street. l recognized her at once
as mysterious and graceful girl who
had so often passed my window. | had
never seen her face, as it was concealed
How, then, did l know she is lovely!
you ask. Because her feet were the
most cantiYatinr little members my Grit