New-York tribune., 1885-01-04
SOCIAL sILHOUETTES.
BEING THE IMPRESSIONS UF MR.. MARK MAN
HAITIAN.
XXI.
A PILLAR OF VIRTUE.

waa having a little chat with her about something.
the weather last ghts ball somewhere the voice Oh
the newly imported prima donna-l forget Wholly
in short the subject of our converse.
Certainly" said. 1t will give me great pleas
ure"
This was one of those conventional wh'o lies
which we are forever called upon TO ntter IL we
would preserve anything like peace IN our Social
dealings and retain shred of reputation 1or even
decent amiability The truth was that did not a'
all want to meet Mrs. Hodridge. had heard a
great deal about this lady, AMI had made up my
mind that during the coming season, while she ap-
peared in public as the chaperon OF her deou'ame
daughter would use all polite means oil avoidlng
her. This daughter had pleased me at hrst sght
and the lily in her soft struck me as appropri
ate enough to have been prompted when she was
cii sened by some fairy sure OF her sweetness '''
In bud. She was a little taller than the common
maidenly stature but slightly above III that th's
trait gave the pale chiselled purity OF her race
new and gentle dignity. Her meekness and her
chastity appealed 10 you tie instant your gaze
dwelt on her; she made me think OF " ELAINE the
fair, Elaine the lovable"; her hair would have Deeh
axen but for certain glisening threads IN lts dehse
banded folds She had all the innocence OF Greuze
and all the saintlness of Fra Angelica she usu-
ally dressed in white, and wore no Jewels her
mother did not approve of jewels In an unmarried
woman Herpure gowns were never decoltetts; her
mother did not approve of their being worn thus by
any sorts of women married OF unmarried. She was
not clover; but you did not expect cleyerness TO
issue from her delicate tea-rOse OF mouth you
would as soon have expected pearl to Hash ike
diamond have never seen one OF her sex so de-
ghtfully free from the least trace OF vanity-and IL
has at no time been my wont to set down this fault
as one dstipctively feminine. She was not oeiie
in society; she appeared to stand apart from the
bellies rather through q winsome reluctance 10 JOIN
their artificial bevy than from any incapacity 10
shine and attract there. One look at her con-
WINGED YOU that she good and honest, ana 1ear
that not few of her smpering and willy sisters only
looked at her with twinges of conjunction on this
account Size would not use the manifold adroit
devices which to so many girls of her place and caste
were shield and ranOply She danced like the sylph
abe was. and always had partner for the german
and a bouauet besides. But the young men with
white waistcoats and assured incomes and superfne
regulations for comforting special honor by their
civilites appeared, as rule little AFRAID OF her.
Besides, the Holdridges were not by any means
people of note.
sHer mother gave her all the position she has,
said Scorch, cynical old snob of Q club-man to mo.
one evening at the Metropolitan ats very funny
how that Holdrdge woman got about. remember
perfectly when IL DrSt nappeneu ~ was al on az
count of her diplomatic piety."
SWhat are you sayingf / exclaimed. with
burst of laughter in spite of myself.
sFaot, 1 assure you. Manhattan said my bitter
companion. sShe secured q pew in DR.. Us,
fashionable church on the Avenue. She was enor
mously depote; in this way she reused interest
among certain patrician pew-hoders Her next
move was to establish Bible class for little girls.
She was very particular what little girls rsaped the
benefit of her scriptural teachings. At first the
thing was rather fasoo The swells were puzzled
they didn't Just know what to make OF it. They
found themselves attacked frUm - totally no"
quarter. People had "got in " by almost every
conceivable method except this. Ii 1T was ra'se &c
guyYe it was horrible and If 1t wasn't then the sus-
nic,on of it's being so shamefully unjust After
a little demur they surrendered Mrs. Holdridge and
pietv and the Bible classes won the day. This was
about ten wears ago. Lillian was only eight nine
then but before she was three years older she had
lot of dear little intimate friends, as her mamma
nsed TO call them. They were all selected with an
immense prudence. No English duchess. presiding
over the list of Almacks was ever more careful than
Mrs Holdridge with the members elect of her holy
reunions" Here my friend repressed yawn. Well
sbe did il, he continued" and that's the whole
story Her scholars have all grown up. and the
sanity Lillian has grown up with them, and is lanc6e
Nothing is given that they don't get cards for
mamma and daughter. There isn't any papa, you
know"
Mrs. Holdridge is q widowF
"Yes she has been one since the Flood. Nobody
ever knew her spouse. 1t is darky murniured that
he once kept a gentemen's furnishing store in
Fulton street But this may be only the slanderous
coinage of some infde brain. Perhaps it was
started by the aggrev cd parent of some little girl
who couldn't get into the arstocratic Bible Glass;
laughed once moro, against my will, as the lazy
Insolence Of Scorch has so often made me-,
Mammals occupation must be gone at present.
said " Her real occupations begun" replied
Scorch. "Now she's going to marry off her girl
But as she hasn't got any money to speak OF. and
never had any real position to speak of, she still
keeps ND her monstrOus virtue TO give herself an in
i,yiduality among the other dowagers. She winked
IN eyelid to me to-day in the Park, and lifted |
ny whip-hand just three inches. That's the way |
riety and Vice bow to each other We do it four |
,r FIVE times week. She disapproves of me- and |
abominate her. She thinks Pm a reprobate
because sit up all night here In the card-room
md then, and think her horrid old arch hypo-
rite and one of the most venomOus gossps in town
besides That's the way stand" Here Scorch
lrew out his watch. and rose. HALO" he added.
it's euchre-time. hope talking to you II bring me
uck tonight, Mark, for by JOve they cleaned me
mt of three hundred the last time played"
Scorclfs comments were by no means my reason y
or wishing not to know Lillian Holdrdges mother |
,iy card-loying friend never had good word for
living mortal, and not seldom wagged his cruel
ongue about dead ones as well. Yet it was i'm
possible to move in the same general set with Mrs.
and not discover that she was person
not only assumed a vast personal morality hut
st in perpetual judgment upon the deeds and mis-
leeds of her contemporaries.
Still, il was written that should know her, and
soon discovered that she herself as one might say.
lad 30 written it. She always made it q rule to
NOW, if possible. the gentlemen whom her daughter
net In society l confess there WAS q tann Of i'm.