The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-06-16
CHAPTER VI.
IN WHICH LADY BEAUTY HAS HER PORTRAIT
PAINTED IN PRINTERS INK.

I lS0au L ten YOU why L nave HEktt<-l TINS
storyi 1t was because met Sophia Temple,
then styled Lady Beauty" in her fifty-third
| year: and her power 70 charm tat an age
/ when charms are commonly supposed to be
dead and gonel led me to ask, What is this
woman's secrets And having searched into
| her life and character. and noted her ways
venture to offer this imperfect record of her
| life, and this still more imperfect picture of
herself, for the study of Der sex generally
| wish to convince women that it is a great
mistake ON their part 10 suppose that their
power to please departs with youth. At all
times have noticed that men of sense seldom
/ adInire-or, if you like, grow enamored Of
women for beauty alone, but for character
manner, taste and conversation. Now, while
beauty I'VE must admit lessons with time
! character, manner, taste and conversation
may each be refined and enriched; and these
l believe, by their Improvement can quite
compensate for the loss OF personal charms
Mere beauty is but one bright, unchanging
beam-it will grow even wearisome; but
wit, sense, courtesy and humanity are forever
| casting forth new and unexpected rays, and
enlivening intercourse with agreeable sur
/ prises. And so the story of Lady Beauty is
written humble attempt to encourage
women to try TO be charming to their latest
day. For they can do it if they try.l
Sophia was without question far inferior in
| physical beauty TO Sibyl, and l think most
people would have said that she was not so
handsome as Caroline Her features were
regular, her nose straight and fine, her com
plexion delicate and rosy; but still, in her
face she was model of womanhood Her
(. expression-and what Is expression but char
acter fixed in the eountenancel-madeS Sophis
| what she was. Her delicate upper lip, with
, the hint of fir1nness in its fine line, told of
resolution; the soft hazel eyes, with their up
ward glance, had look of aspiration; the
mouth was full of tenderness, ready to mold
itself to every affectionate feeling. But what
was this after all Sophia's nature in So
phias facet
She was the best dresser ever knew OF
color either by study or natural gift. She
| was a perfect mistress. Accordingly her APP
| pearance pleased numbers of people before
| they saw her face; and many time she
| went down the street the curiosity of those
| who walked behind was aroused TO see what
might be the face of the woman whose gown
and mantle were so striking 10y the harmony
or the contrast of their hue. Flowers, rib
bons brooches, all that sets Off dress, she used
| with the most unerring taste. And she man
aged through all the changes of fashion to re
spect herself and her own figure and face; in
! llAS AstSIlOn sue always NOill HS bul StliA Silt
! modulated it so as to be the queen and not the
slave. No doubt Sophia must have paid
| great attention TO her dress, but i scarcely
| think she could have achieved such constant
/ success, or so complete, had she not been
dresser born
Then her manners in society were cap
| tivating Here | think the little mothers
| homilies We're useful, indeed. With what
| graceful attention she heard what you had to
| sayl How modestly she gave her own
| opinionl She was well read, and could take
her part in most conversations with ease;
| and now and then she could deal out a witty
stroke. Indeed, Sophia had great deal OF
humor, but seldom gave it the rein in society
Night was her time, with Car and Sibyi; ami
1 often the two more brilliant girls, as they
| laughed at her comical "reminiscences of the
day would feel how easily Sophia could out
shine them if she tried
| She loved the world. Here again the IN
/ fuence of her mother was perceptible, with
| this difference that the world in her mothers
| language signified society, and nothing more,
while Sophia would have included in it the
whole of nature and life. l do not think
ever saw any one who had such simple and
unaffected enjoyment in living she. a
walk in the woods was enchantment to her;
and, on the other hand, l have seen her ON,
I iItt pUDt Vi pititStlIdbio tACllSiueub II
ball. She was no poetic recluse; she never
/ Stunned society or its pleasures, but rather
| sought them. There was not a particle of
affectation about her: indeed, she retained
4 her girlishness and her love of girlish aInuse-
ments for an unusually long time.
| And she certainly remembered her mothers
| teaching in another particular; she tried to
/ please She knew that a woman ought to be
AN object of admiration and affection, and
1
| view But Sophia understood the art of
charming, which, with all their grace
! fulness, few English women entirely do.
| Perhaps Nature feels that she has given
our English women enough already, and,
/ mindful of the limitation which ought TO
| mark all mortal things, has withheld that
one gift which would make them irresistible
| Sophia knew that face and figure are not
| everything. She understood that it is the
woman man admires, not her eyes or nose
| or lips OF waist; the whole woman-person,
| dress, manner, talents and character.
Frenchwomen are in this respect more far
| sighted than our English ladies, but even
/ Frenchwomen do not fully realize this great
| social truth. A woman who knows that her
dress is tasteful and her expression agreeable
and her conversation lively will be little dis
mayed to hear of crows feet round her eye
| lids or gray hairs on her temples. Her bet
ter part is blooming amidst the gentle decay
of more material charms You will laugh
when l tell you before the story ends how
| Sophia Temple, Lady Beauty, at the age of
| fifty three, had a lover, and what a
| lover he was
One touch l must add. to this picture.
| Sophia was in the best sense of the word
religious woman without love-" cries
! great novelist, Il can fancy no gentleman 3"
| A little difidently | should add, without re
/ hgion l can fancy no lady. Sophias piety
ysas in no way obtrusive, never puritanical,
never ascetic but gentle, animated and
| humane. 1t quite saved her from her moth
er's narrow and heartless and merely spark
! ling worldliness. Sophia loved the world, but
/ had hope beyond it, and her religion gave a
| richness, a sweetness, seriousness to all her
charms.
must admit, however, that many of Lady
Beauty's own sex declared her to be nothing
particular That men admired her was not
to be denied, but women would often ask
dryly what it was for When knew her well
enough to take such liberty, ventured to
say to her one day that, greatly as she was
praised by our sex, her own appeared to de
| cline to accept her as by any means repre-
sentative. She laughed with much gayety.
-Some of US" she replied, admire in our
selves what's forcible and striking l believe
you said to fne yourself one day that Lady
| Macbeth and some other eminent ladies Of the
Imagination, whom we remember, made suf-
ficiently vivid impression to satisfy both
| sexes. You added something like this:
somewhat doubt if Lady Macbeth would be
altogether a success in the drawing r N
"What, then, is your idea of a womanl'
asked
Il have drawn up a set of beauty rules -
she replied, rising and going to her desk.
| They will be the best answer to your ques-
| tom She laughed with great sportiveness,
| so that could not tell whether she was jest
ing or in earnest
So she gave me her beauty rules there and
then But these reserve for the last chap
ter of this story, when, in parting with my
readers and my heroine, l shall narrate two
curious illustrations of her power to please
repeat, this story Is written for the in
| struction of the tens of thousands of Eng
lishwomeE who can be like Sophia Temple if
| they try. Whoever of my fair readers viii
follow this amiable example shall be relieved
of the anxiety of glancing over her shoulder
/ for ever 20 see what brighter beauty of later
| date and fresher charms may be coming up
behind Youth and the attractions of youth
need net be despised by such a woman;
| neither need they be envied. Her knowledge
of society, her ways of the world, her fam
/ iliarity with eharacter-these, together with
taste, refinement virtue, and the desire to
please, viii give her the victory over time.
Like our dear Lady Beauty, she, too, shall be
charming to her latest day.
CHAPTER VII
A BOXING MATCH.
Prendergast, " ho resided not far from Ket-
tlewell, had occasional opportunities Of meet
ilg the Temples; and it had been the little
mothers expectation that he might renew
his SUIT, and, perhaps, after time, draw