Litchfield enquirer., 1878-02-07
WHOLE NO. 2697

friends were mine, there was no escape now l so we had a grand kissing and hand-shaking,
 and leave-taking. The young men rather like
 these occasions, as they can take advantage of the pretext of sudden and overwhelming emo
 tion to steal the chaste salute from the depart
 ing fair one, for which they have so long been pining for in vain. The poor thing being in 6
 kissing, fearful mood, grows confused with so
 much embracing, and thus getstaken advantage
 of. I saw it happen to Edith in three differ
 ent cases, and she seemed scarcely to have
 known what she was doing. Obadiah, who
 was looking on with a view of discovering
 ''the hidden principle of nature which was at
 work" said she was perfectly we'll aware all
 the time what she was about but think sci
 ence is little cynical. However, as he said
 it, of course it must have been true. ''Why,
 my dear," said Edith, as soon as all her ad-
 mirers had hurried down the gangway, at the
 imminent risk of iostling one another into the
 water.-for they had clung to the ship to tbe
 1ast-s'why, my dear, only to think of our go- 1 ing over together in the same steamer why, ! it's perfectly splendid !" e
 ''But are you going over alone ?" l sasked. '4 don't see Mr. 6 Mrs. Persimmon.
 Didn't you hear, dear, that Flora sent to
 invite me to pay her visit at Huckleberry
 Castle. She said there was no room for papa
 and mamma, but that she would be glad to l q
 from Lord Chowder. So, as dear Captain
 Codd is such friend of ours,-yOu know; we made our last passage with him,-he agrcedto 1 take me under his charge. Besides, ky Bull
 stock, and old Mir and Mrs. Barebones, and
 Mary, are crossing with us so l shall not feel
 bit alone; and now 1 shall have you as well and 1 am never sick so l expect to have a | beautiful time"
 l And here should observe that had receiv- Iol l,.nI | terms, COngratulating me on my marriage but regretting that it should have happened just at the moment when she was going toinvite me- to | pay heravisit Now that was married. she sup | posed was too much absorbed in my husband l to care about paying visits, which was adeli- cate way of insinuating that though sine would have been glad to see me alone, she did not want Obadiah Thus it came to pass that Edith PersimmOn was asked in uy stead, and that now found her on board the same steam CT wish myself, starting i'll pu3uit of Chowder. 1 was standing with my arm through Obadi- ah's, as l made this reflection, and thought how nearly Chowder had been my fate and when 1 compared what tt really was with what it might have been. felt inclined, then and there to fall on my knees with gratitude: for l would not have exchanged my Obadiah for million Chowders, or have descended from my lofty position as Mrs. TOmpkins, to be her Grace the Duchess of Gumbo, for anything the world could offer. Obadiah said that this sen timent arose from hidden law, which had been prevented by the intellectual forces of na- ture from development in the most civilized portion of the human race, but that in my case it was struggling to find expression and he hoped in time should be no ally as much superior to the rest of my sex as the recently discovered male aborigines of the eastern part of New Guinea are to the most advanced men of science in Paris or London, or New York. This may give the reader hint as to my hus- bands evolution theory. 1 may be able to re- fer to it more fully on another occasion; for the present 1 must return to Edith. She was extremely anxious to know all about Chowder. In other words, she wanted what in America are called points" and in England tips from the one person who, of all others could give them from experience. She evidently considered it in manner providcntial that she, bent upon the capture of that special cor onet, should find herself making passage in the same steamer with one who had already captured the heart to which it was supposed 10 belong.
 !. "Edith, said, 'you don't need any in- struction of this kind. You have had enough experience, goodness knows, without asking me. You can't catch him under waterfall, as 1 did, because there are no waterfalls worth talking about in England but if you can't get
 into difficulties in the hunting-field, fornstanCe and sprain your ankle, and both lose your way. and then-oh, Edith" broke off, "how silly you are-or, rather, am. 1 will not go on talking such nonsense. There is only one thing l will tell you: it is not Chowder that you will find any difficulty with. but the Duchess She will be your Plevna. Take the Duchess. my dear, assault her. sap her, mine her, starve her-anything you like-only capture her. She and you together must then lay seize to the Duke, and the walls of Chowdcr. like those of Jerico, will fall down the moment you blow your trumpet, if your flag is float ing triumphantly from the parental battle ments"
 Obadiah came up just as had exploded in this magnificent burst of alegory and felt so dreadfully ashamed of myself when l remem- bered how differently Papuan woman would have advised any young aboriginal female in regard to matrimony, that found my eyes fill ing with tears at this descent from my high ideal.
 Two years previously, as the Countess of Chowder should have looked forward to London season with a delight bordering upon frenzy Now, as Mrs. Obadiah TOmpkinS, deeply interested in the problem of humanity, I anticipated, with a far keener and more real enjoyment quiet life with my husband in a suburban villa, surrounded by a cOngcnial SD eiety of his literary and scientific friends l will not describe the intensity of my devotion to him, nor the absolute unity of our feelings and aspirations for there are none of my mar ried acquaintances who could syihpathiZe with or understand it. He always insisted upon my sitting near him him when he wrote, because he said, inspired him but l dare not iiatter myself that it is due to this that the remarka- ble series of articles which have appeared in the Nineteenth Century, signed Obadiah Tompkins," on the Moral Attributes of Phys ical Forces" should have produced so pro found sensation. Their importance may be gathered from the fact that we are credibly in- formed that Mir. Gladstone is at this moment writing reply to them in a series of articles entitled ''The Physical Attributes of Moral Forces" and that the entire subject is to dis cussed at latter period in a symposium" The more l think of it, however, the more ! feel that the true arena for debating topics Oi this kind is the House of Commons. It is only natural that, being an American, l should bc strongly Conservative and need scarcely add that Obadiah entirely shares my views. He feels with me that it is not to be tolerated that all the scientific talent should be on the libcr- al side of the House, and that Dr. Lyon Play fair and Sir John Lubbock are to be allowed to have it all their own way on a certain class of questions. We have therefore made up our minds that he is to stand at the next general election l confess that it is not without a cer- tain feeling of triumph that 1 am looking for ward to the day when Obadiah will be called upon to join cabinet of which Hucklcberry will probably be a member.
 Meantime Flora has fully justified my cx- pectations Her beauty, her brilliant talent. her great adaptabity and powers of imitation. enabled her to assume her w;gOe with emi- nent success and she soon secured the admir- ation, had almost said devotion, of the lead ing personages of London society. Thus she gallantly fought her way into the front rank of that set in which Lady Twickenham and the Hon. Mrs. Birmingham are such dislin- guished ornaments. Before the first season was over, she had got herself enormously talk- ed about and there was certain reckless dash about her, which captivated all who found themselves drawn within the influence of her magic circle. Chowder was one of her most assiduous worshippers, and Edith had some difficulty in turing him off. Flora, however. far from being jealous made use of her friend