Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-30


TO be untrue, and who will never be asked
again, but that cannot be, as Lord Cassie
wary would have demanded terrible sat
lstactl0n-and they say the Customary
blood is dreadful when it is up. Oh, no!
LORD Cassiowary is entirely great, though
young. In truth, great young man."
SO was Mrs. Dalmayne wont to talk of
the young lion, amid a murmuring APP
plause from the salon; and no wonder that
the names OF CassiOwary and Gwendoline
became associated together, and an ALI
ance more than probable.
The world at this time looked passing
fair to Mrs. Dalmayne, and the door of the
cupboard containing the skeleton, pos
sessed by every respectable (and disre-
| spectacle family, seemed very securely
locked. The Dalmayne skeleton, grim
enough in all conscience, took the sub
stantial form OF the eldest daughter Of
/ the house, Elise, as her mother called her.
Gaunt and glum, owning to forty, slat-
/ ternly IN attire. once seen never forgotten,
/ Elise was awful. On the rare occasions
/ when she appeared in the sutton she sat
/ glOwering in a corner, spoken to by few,
/ speaking to none. If any one mentioned
| Mrs. Dalmayne's eldest daughter to her
in way that seemed to call for eXplana-
/ ton she was equal to the occasion, and in
| voice sunk almost to whisper, with
| panied look she would say, "Ah, poor
/ Elise! 1t is, indeed, sad affiiction.
J Nurses are so desperately, so awtully,
/ careless. think the sound of my Elise's
! baby head against the oak dinlng-rOOm
/ floor at AbergOwrie will never cease ring
! ing in my ears. Darling Elise! You
/ cannot think what a beautiful devotion
my Ermyntrude and GWendOline have to-
/ ward her 1t sometimes quite makes me
/ cry to hear Ermyntrude trying to soOthe
\ our loved one with WinkOpstcy's (yOu
/ I'M Won IA
/ He was here last Friday-he's a great
/ friend Of the dear Lama of Thibet Win
/ kOpstcy'S "Battle of the Huns" Dear
/ Ermyntrude, she has the courage of a
| Hecuba, and never tlinched when she had
/ one of our Elise's boots (and dear Elise
has a large FOOT at her head, after one of
/ those s0othings. Gwenny, too. with her
! bright sunny face, seems to do Elise good.
/ Such bolster fights they have in the morn
/ ing; but sigh AS you may suppose,
! Elise cannot 20 much into society. |
1 am unable TO take her out. She comes
down to the draWing-rOOm here because
she insists upon it, and | think cOmmu-
Mon with great minds may have a bene-
fetal effect on her too small one, All nv
friends know her affection, its cause and
/ understand its effect. That is sufficient"
No wonder that, after explanations such
as these, the scOWling Elise, who i'm reality
was as sane as her mother, if not saner,
was looked upon with plying eve. No
wonder that if, amid the applause follow
ing one of Winkopstcy's Battles" loud
'BOshv came from a secluded corner, it
was passed over with a sad lifting OF eve
brOWs and smOtherlng Of signs. No Won
/ der that Mrs. Dalmayne's eldest daughter
| became known to the SdiOn as the ''af-
tlicted one" and was called SO in private
by the members of that select assembly.
Time went on. The season was reach
] I'M &c mt
nearer getting to the point. The Dal-
maynes had only been to one party where
| any one in society might even be met. and
that was at the Home Secretary's, to
which, a Liberal Government being then
in power Mrs. Damayne had cOntrved
to procure an invi alton. There was no
| doubt some decisive and aggressive step
must be at once taken. Even the SQi0n
had of late seen few illustriOus guests.
Horror of horrors art was going out of
fashion! SOciety-heartless, tickle So
ciety-was giving up Botticelli, die-away
green's, peacOcks' feathers, blue china and
penny Japanese fans, and taking to cri-
nolettes, gilt chairs, plate glass, primary
cOlOrS and the electric light. Tragedians
of the most awful description raved; te-
nOrs with no voice warbled little songs
about at was only a Lobster Salad"
'rhe Death Kiss" "Crushed to his
/ Heart" and such like; Winkopstcy
| fought endless Battles" in which the
piano generally came off worst; but,
alas! only to audiences of city people,
bitten by the art craze; government clerks
families, who couldn't afford the theatre,
| but whose great-grandfathers having
| been the Honorable Mr.. SO and So, had
| therefore the entree of the Dalmayne salon.
and a smattering of battered members of
/ the ariStOcracy, to whom the portals OF
! their own set were, for some reason best
] 70 I'll
/ At last, Ascot well over, and London, in
Guiding the Dalmaynes, getting very hot
and stuffy, help came from an unexpected
quarter, and hope sprang anew in Mrs.
! Dalmayne's breast. The Duchess of Arm
strong, Cassiowary's mother, hearing
! from friend of the family that her son
! had got into a set the peculiarities of
which she had seen commented upon in
/ Punch, sent a message to Mrs. Dalmayne
asking il she might come to the next CAT
! Home" and personally thank her for the
interest she had taken in Cassiowary's
welfare.
Mrs. Dalmayne, it need hardly be said,
/ expressed herself as being ''most happy
| 10 see the Duchess whenever she liked to
! come" In reality her delight was fren-
/ zied; and as soon as she was alone with
! her daughters after the receipt of the news
she relieved her feelings by polka (actu-
! ally philistine polkal) round the draw
! ing-rOOm with Gwendoline.
Preparations were Immediately made
! for an SAT Home" on a scale never before
attempted under the old rOof-tree. A
! carefully-worded invitation was sent to
/ Customary, to the effect that "a few
| friends of the world of art and letters
/ were expected on the 18th, and Mrs. Dali
/ mayne hoped the Duchess and Lord Cas-
siowary would give her the pleasure of
their company at what she trused would
be. indeed, feast of reason and a flow
/ of SOUL" Great discrimination was en-
/ ployed in the other invitations. Artists
/ and actors were invited wholesale, Cas-
| siOWary having limited that his mother, in
| spite OF advancing years, was somewhat
! stage struck; a few Tory members of
| Parliament, one or two native Indian law
students from the Temple, implOred to
/ come in Eastern costume, COSTUMES pro-
| Vided if necessary from Nathan's) and
a man suspected of having poisoned his
wife, but honOrably acquitted, though
| there was no doubt he had done it all the
! time. This gentleman had been the sub
! ject of much discussion, Mrs. Dalmayne
having firmly refused to ask him in spite
| of GWendOline's entreaties. and il was
/ only on Cassiowary's saying that unless
the pOisoner was invited neither he nor
his mother would come that Mrs. Dali
mayne gave way and the invitation was
sent. An uncle of Mrs. Dalmayne's,
whom nobody had ever seen, and who, it
was rumored, lived somewhere near, but
over the water, sent check for $50 for
'liquor." so he said, but which was ex-
1 pended much more probably in the en-
gagement OF the great La Scala, of Her
Majesty's, who for that sum would under
take to break the drum of your ear and
all the windows in the house into the
bargain. Three gowns were secretly orde-
ed from Worth's. The salon was to re-
ceive a shock on the great night it would
not recover from for some time. On that
night, when the doors of society would
slowly revOlve and let Mrs. Dalmayne
and her daughters in, art was to be forever
discarded, and Mrs. Dalmayne, Gwendo-
line, and Ermyntrude would cross the
majestic threshold in sky blue, rancid
pink, and bright orange in the highest of
stays, in the largest of crinOlettes, with
the barest of arms, and the lightest OF
hearts. There was only one difficulty to
be standardization to get rid of Elise?
GOt rid of she must be. The Duchess
must never see her. Whatever was TO be
done? AS a rule, ON occasions such as
these Elise was trActable enough, and
was willing to go to the theatre or some
entertainment in lieu of appearing as a
daughter of the house; but on this partic-
ular occasion she was Obdurate.
Its all very well, as a rule" she said,
Cpd as lief as not have your room as your