Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-10-27
UNDER FALSE COLORS,
OR, "A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER.
Fraser's Magazine.

Fraser's Magazine.
1t was night. The gilt clock on the
mantelpiece in that fairy-ike boudoir
had just rung out eleven sweet pings.
The Lady Ermengarde BeaEnOnde re-
clined on a low chair before ti,' p8rfum-
ed woodtire (she always burned perfum-
ed woods after the fashion of the god
dess Calypso, though she obliged no
Ulysses to stretch his manly limbs be-
fore her blazing hearth-no Ulysses, in
deed, would have required two invita-
tions to do sol, and rested her charming
little feet with the arched instep of long
descent upon the steel fender. She held
an uncut number of the most recently
started periodical upon her knee. The
Lady Ermengarde was bored. She fire.
quently was bored.
She wanted some fresh interest in life.
She had tried many things and found
them vanity. She had gone to Church
every morning in the dark for several
weeks together, and dined on salmon,
Soles, and plovers eggs, every Friday.
She had held drawing-room meetings on
behalf of missions to the superior clergy
of the Church of Rome from the Pope
down. She had written half of fash
ionable novel in the fe,tiLleto1 of the pc
riodical preceding Our Planet but the
editor had begun to be exacting in the
matter of grammar and semicolons, and
had required the heroine's eyes to be of
the same color in at least two consecu-
tive numbers; her maid, too, had COM
planned that correcting proofs made her
headache, so she had ceased to furnish
weekly copy; aud, as a second titled
.fettiiLetOniste was not forthcoming, and
a celebrated atheist at the same time
withdrew his contributions, the sale of
the periodical had suffered. Then she
took to dingy colors in dress and furni-
ture; called chairs and tables, colors and
stuffs, right or wrong, as if they had
been actions, and spoke of fragments of
china add scraps of carving as very pre-
cious' She alluded to mankind in gen.
eral as the herd called respectable per-
sons PhiliStineS, and invariably spoke
of results as OucomeS. Then she became
specially attached to china, and having |
seen a specimen of willOw-pattern on |
cottage shelf, became its happy possess |
or on rendering a golden pound to the !
proprietress. Next morning there was
a crowd round the principal entrance OF
BeaumOnde Castle, demanding audience |
of the Lady Ermengarde. 1t consisted |
of the matrons of the village. Each ma
tron bore a large basket containing her |
household crockery, which she desired |
to part with at guinea the piece. Thus |
the lovely lady found that even. willow
pattern china is vanity.
My life is an abysmal void sighed |
the high-born lady, tossing Our Planet
wearily aside. THE rayless universe
less eyeballs. There is something wrong |
clearly with the present phase of civili- |
Zation, and things may not come right |
for the next thousand years or So Then |
she gently removed two tears-two real |
tears-she was positive they were not
the result of a yawn, one from each side
of her patrician nose, and experienced /
an exquisite sensation of misery. Il
yearn for experience she continued; Il
long to plunge into the vast abysses of |
other existences. l should like to be a
daughter of the people, wrestling with
the elements for bread, as in France, an
Indian mother rocking her infant in the
soft arms of the spicy breeze, an Alpine
herd girl singing in the live air of the
mountains; l.
The door opened. and the 1.-THE form
of Anytime, her ladyship's lovely and
accomplished maid, appeared.
Ii you please, my lady, Miss Borrow
dale has woke and would like to see your
ladyship,' she said, with the exquisite
finish that the lady's maid loves to give
to the accent of our native tongue.