The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-06-09
CAH.f Eh II.
A VERY SEoRF CHAPTER


This passage. TIE only morsel Of sensation
in cur boudoir story, has been dismissed as
rapidly as was possible. Indeed, it would
never have been told at all, had il not been
link in the chain of incident on which the his
tory depends.
OF course, all Kettlewell applauded our
Sophia Her midnight descent, her fight
across the hall, her plucky behavior at the
bell rope-everything she had done was
praised. The burglars fed at the first peal,
bat Sophia kept on ringing until all the
neighbors We're aroused: and then such
congregation of servants and others had
gathered iii the house and grounds that
fear was not to be thought Of All of us
applauded her quickness Of thought about the
belfry; the only person who spoke in anything
ike qualified tone being Egerton, who re-
marked that he was far from wishing to cast
any sur on Sophia, but still he must say that
she would have made.a great deal more noise
if she had used the Chinese gong which stood
in the hall For sounding an alarm, Eeerton
said there was nothing ike Chinese gong.
Sophia, in the gentlest way, but with laugh
ter trembling on her lips, pointed out that
the gong stood just where the robbers were
working; upon which Egerton retorted that
he had not said anything about where IL
stood. but only that for sounding an alarm
Now, how would you expect the little
mother to have acted. To have denied her
| own abject terror, and attenuated Sophia
! braverys She did nothing Of the kind.
Il was dead with fear she said, in her
gay way. Courage Is not one of my vir-
tees. / could no more have gone down those
stairs and past those dreadful men than L
could raise that piano with my finger. Deuce
take my eaftir-sometiInes in her easy
| moods she would let fly an expression of this
| sort-@I thought it would never beat again
| And Sophia was a. cool as if she were going
down to see a visitor. Sophia ought 70 be a
| soldiers wife: she ought to be a soldier her
| self. Few women would have acted as she
did that night Really ! would not have be-
Iieyed she had il in her.
One happy result for the poor girl was that
her mothers wrath was not 50 niuch APP
peased as effaced The whole Prendergast
| incident WAS for the time forgotten; and
when Mrs. barbara Temples mind reverted
| to the matter she admitted 10 herself that in
| charging Sophia with weakness she made a
| great mistake. She still depiored the issue
/ Of the affair, but she never again approached
her daughter, and she even made one or two
indirect apologies for her severity of speech,
and these may be Sophia was only
/ too willing to accept
ana now Inffe ItEaU quite an era III
| Sophia-s life. Her lover was absent, and
| they Were not allowed TO communicate with
each other, for this point Mrs Temple
never relaxed She was not formally en-
gagged indeed, she vas understood to be open
| to an offer-a fact which her mother, still
| following her original policy, took care tc
publish abroad Caroline and Sibyl now
/ fully agreed with their mother that Sophia
was acting recklessly in allowing the fresh
ness of her youth TO pass away under this
bIighting spell And ali this time, only by
| the merest chance. seldom-perhaps never
could she hear anything of Percival Brent. He
| might be untrue: and even then, according tc
the words OF their agreement, she could not
reproach him with incontsancy. 1t was q
trying time fer her; but during this period
her character was formed, and she who on
her fiftieth birthday was with general con
sent and delight styled Lady Beauty learned
her secret of charming in this period oi
| anxiety ami waiting, when her constancy
and her patience were so severely tried
here relate the main incidents Of this unevent
full period and having at the same time tried
by touches here and there to give you an
idea Of the maturity of charms toward which
Time was bearing our dear heroine shall
be able IN my next book to tell you how It all
L ended: whether Percival was true or false;
i whether or net happiness Of the kind she ex-
I pected rewarded the consistency OF her pure.
4 glowing, and yet never impatient anectioH