Litchfield enquirer., 1878-01-31

My intimate friend, confdante, and rival was my cousin, Flora Temple. In spite of
 her grand hames she was not so well born as ,Yas, or as her namesake on the sturfTtor her
 father was originally tailor, who had made his fortune during the war by taking army scontractss and when he had risen to the social
 surface he. married my mothers sister, and
 then, rather fortunately for my. cousin, died, F for he was very shoddy sort Of person, and
 left herltwo millions of dollars. This, togeth-
 CT with her own beauty and talent and my
 mothers social influence, soon pushed her into
 the front rank She was more than two years
 my senior, and had commenced her career by a tremendous affair with the celebrated ky Bullstoek, who for the last fifteen years has been devoting himself to ensnaring the affec- tions of girls as soon as they come out. Since |. his marriage, his name has been connected with no feWer'than ten. Il was counting them up with Flora not long age;, ;,but then, think, in the cases of several, it was mere idle gossip. Anyhow, it did not do Flora any harm for Charlie van Didntoffer was simply wild about her. oCharlie belonged to one of the oldest Kniekerbocker families he was very hand some banker of the highest standing and charming manners. am sure many of my
 English readers must remember him in Paris
 and Rome.snHe was most omnipotent at the fashionable ,Spuyten Duyyel Club, was promi- ucub HI all uldtIcTS Ol SROIG, dl1u Wdo
 sally popular To begin with a filtration with ky Bullstock, and go on to an engagement
 with Charlie van Didntoffer was enough to
 turn any girls heads my own secret soul,
 though, we girls were much more reticent in | these matters than English girls are; and, can't say for certain, don't believe Flora car ed so much for Charlie as she pretended,. and
 mentally reserved the right to throw him over if sufficient inducement should offer, but she enjoyed what you in England call the ''swag- ger" of the thing. Whether Charliesuspeeted this or not, I don't know but certain it is that
 at Newport, where we were all three thrown
 good deal together, began to perceive indica-
 tions of wayering in ilis affections n my di- rection. Now am no base, ungenerous, or treacherous girl but don't think that it was
 in flesh and blood to help reciprocating just
 the least hit more especially as ky was still futterng around ;4and on several occasions
 did not think Floras conduct quite fair towards
 Charlie, and felt quite sorry for him, poor fel-'
 low; and so by degrees it came about know
 was to blame, but really could not help it before | knew where was, Charlie had pro-
 posed to me. - He said he felt sure Flora was
 only trifing with him, and if would only ac- cept him he would throw her over. 1 never consulted mamma much on these subjects, as | 1 always felt she took such a mercenary view of them-she seemed to make noallowance for sentiment; so had to work it out for myself,
 and as 1 was barely eighteen, was determined
 to do nothing rash. So told Charlie that l
 could not disguise the fact that cared for him
 more than for anybody else; but at the same time, as he was engaged to Flora 1 could not
 countenance his jiltng her on my account, but
 I thought we. had all better wait as we were
 for year. If at the end of that time Flora
 still cared for him, and he still cared for me,
 and I did not care for somebody else, then we
 could discuss the whole matter over again. and
 in the meantime we could remain upon the
 nice intimate terms which this little confidence
 would produce You see, I thought year
 would surely bring about a change in the sltu-
 alton somehow, which would make it all easi-
 CT. What does the stupid boy do but go straight
 to Flora and tell her he finds he does not care
 for her any longer? Of course Flora was fu-
 rious, and said 1 had behaved shamefully ; and
 for some weeks we did not speak,. The affair
 made quite stir at the time all Newport was
 talking about it: and itswas one of the stand
 ard pieces of gossip in New York when every
 body returned from their various watering
 places and exchanged the several scandals
 which had occurred at them respectively AL
 though Charle.was very devoted to me, 1 felt
 rather uncomfortable and refused to be def-
 nitely engaged to him. In spite of being so
 fond of gaiety, was also a devourer of all
 kinds of literature and general information,
 and really studied as hard as my other avoca-
 tions would permit. Now, although Charlie
 was most refined and gentlemanlike in his man
 fers, he lacked what in Boston (pronounced
 not inappropriately BorestonO is called culture
 (pronounced cIlchaw). What between bank
 ing, driving his four-in-hand, and attending to
 Flora or me, he seemed to have no time to in-
 form his mind. In this respect he was not in-
 ferior to ky Bullstock, Harry Hardpan or
 of T nfal.t tC
 mind as well as man, and 1 told him so. Af-
 ter that he used to come and read Dickens to
 me. for an hour day. 1 told him when he
 had finished all Dickens novels, l would put
 him through a course of ''NeW England
 thought" and by that time should be in a
 position to give definite answer in regard to
 our. marriage. .n1it s,s. a rr1s44 s,-...sl a 's
 For the reason 1 aim about to narrate, that
 time never arrived. We were in the middle of
 Bleak House, and was thinking how in the
 world to make it up again with Flora, when
 Charlie came in panting one day with most
 important piece of intelligence. Letters had
 just been received by his firm announcing that
 the Earl of Chowder, eldest son of the Duke of Gumbo, and Viscount Hucclcberry were to ar
 rive by the next steamer. enclosing letters of
 credit and requesting the Van Didntoffer Brothers to do all in their power to make their
 stay in New York agreeable to them. The az itation into which this intelligence threw man. ma, at once revealed to me the vast ambitions of which that excellent woman was capable Magnetically her noble aspirations seemed in stantly conveyed to my own bosom; and though Charlie was reading about Lady DedlOck, a theme which at any other time would have ab- sorbed my attention, ''the beating of my gown heart was the only sound heard" Here was splendid opportunity for setting matters right with Flora: besides, needed her cooperation and advice. There was one for each of us {: and provided we did not interfere with each other and go for the same one, as we had in l case of Charlie, there was no reason why, with | the advantage of an early start we should not have it all our own way. The fact is, we were both considerably put upon our mettle by the triumphant success which had just crowned | the efforts of our two most intimate friends, l. Ida Stfaddle, daughter of Billy Straddle of | the well ll-known firm of Puff and Straddle bro- | ers-and Laura Berstup, whose father is a | railway iaagnate, and well-known amongst l English shareholders for the talentwith which l he has made his fortune out of the dividends l they fondly hoped to pocket. Ida, after rap- | i'd campaign extendinga little over fortnight, | had captured an impecunious Spanish grandee | who valued his dukedoom at half million of | dollars Billy who has always shown himself a most fond and indulgent father, had the cash l down on the, nail, and Ida became the Duchess l of Virdemonio, to the great envy of us all and has already sent those of us who wish to con- | tract alliances with the Spanish aristocracy, in Ivitations to visit her in her Chateau en Es- l pagne ;;"& and here ]. may remark, that when | ever one of us makes sas successful hit of this fort, she always does her utmost to help on her | friends linen Laura was engaged to be niar- | rieds to the Russian Prince Schamoyitch: he l was next door to being 3 crstiaa but as he die ay1fIV .cOnnoctn6 with fho Rnmanoffo l the eisplendour of the alliance reduced to insig- nifioanee, Besides, as Laura said, they were going to live principally in Paris, where it was rather convenient than otherwise for 2 very | pretty woman to havea fool for 2 husband. As. the prince is enormously rich, and Laura is not badly off, 2 have iio doubt they will have a good time but you may imagine how all this was calculated to stimulate our energies. Any | girl with 9 wei. balanced mind would rather | be an English countess, or even. viscountess than Spanish duchess or. Russian princess. | We classify them somewhat as follows: First