Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-05-23
CHAPTER II.
|, VERY SHORT CHAPTEF

This passage, the only mofsel o. so"S"
ton in boudoir story, has been dismissed
"a rapidly as possible. Indeed, 1t would
never have been told st all, had 1t not been
a link In rho chain of incident on which
the history depends.
OF course, all KettleWell spplauded our
SopIis. Her midnight descent, her hlgnt
across the hall, her plucky behavior at the
bell rope everything she had done was
praised. The burgulars fled at the hrst
Deal, but Sophia kept on ringing unhl all
the ueIshbors were aroused; and then suea
a CONGREGATION of servants and cihers IN the
/ house and grounds that fear Was not TO &c
thought of. All of US spplsuded her quick
ness of thought about the belfry; the only
person speaking il anything ike qnai'h'
ed tone being Egerton, VINO reGsr:ed that
he was far from wishing to cast any slur On
Sophia, but still he must cay that II sue
would haze made q great deal more NOSE
# she had used the Chinese gong which
stood in the hsll. For sounding an alarm,
/ EJerton said, there was nothing hke o
| Chinese gong. Sophia in the geu;less way,
out With laughter trembling on her lips,
sointed out that the gong stood Just where
| the robbers were vorS.ug: upon Ghieh kS-
er,on retorted that be had nos sad eny-
thing about where il stood, but only that Tor
/ gouuding an alarm there was nothing Ike
u Chinese gong.
! Nov, how would yop have expected the
! LILLE mother to have sctedi To have de.
: MED her own sbiect terror and stteaIsted
| Sophis's bravery? She did nothing OF the
aad.
Il was dead 9Th fesr" she said, in her
gsy way "Coursge is not one Of my viz
! tues could no more have gone Gown
hose stairs and past those dreadful men
| than could have lifted my piano with my
/ Gager. Deuce take my heart! some
times in her easy moods she would fly an
/ expression of this SORT thought 1t would
never beat again Aud Sophia WAS az
! cool az if she were going down 10 see q
visitor Sophia ought to be a soldier
/ wife Few women would have acted as she
did that night. Really ] would not have
/ believed ii was in her
| Que happy result for the poor girl was
/ that her mothers wrath vas not 80 much
appessad az etfsCed. The whole Pceader
yyst incident was fox the time forgotten;
| aud when Mrs Barbara Temples mind re
v,r,ed TO the matter, she admitted to her
/ self that in charging Sophia with weakness
abe hsd made a grea. mistake. She sull
dsplored the issgs o. the affair, but she ns-
/ YER again reproschsd her daughter and she
ayeu made one or two indirect apologies
, 70. Ssr severity Of speech, and these we
may be SUES Sophia vas only too willing to
accept.
And now there bagsu quite "a eSa n
S9paiss life. Her lover was absent, and
rheg were not alleged TO communicate with
each o.her, foc on this point Mrs. Temple
never relaxed. She was not formally en-
ragged; indeed, she was uudrstood to De open
70 an off-r-a fact which her mother, still
/ following her original policy, took care to
publish abroad. Caroline and Sioyl nov
/ fully agreed With their mother that Sophia
vas acting reckles:ly in letting her fresh.
ness Of her youth TO pass away under this
hTghting spell. And all this time only by
/ the merest chance, seldom-perhaps never
could she hear anything of PerciVsl
| Brent He might o. untrue; aud even
then, according to the words of their agree.
nsnt she could not reprosch him for in
co7stancy. 1t was trying time for her;
bat during this psuod her character was
formed, and she who on her fiitieth birth.
day was with general consent and delight
styled Lady Beauty" learned her secret Of
charming in this period Of anxiety and
wai,isg when her coustaucy and patience
we're so severly tried | hs7s relate the
main incidents of this uneventful period,
and having at the same time tried by
touches here aud there to give you an idea
Of the maturity OF charms toward which
Tine WAS bearing our ias- heroine. | shall
he able in nv next book TO tell you how it
All ended; whether Percival was true or
flse; whether or not happiness OF the kind
sha expected rewarded the constsncy Of
her pure, glowing, and vet never impatient
affection.