Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-07-09

siect herself an nor own nguro ana IA %. IN
the fashion -ho lvav, wuv,d he, but still She
modula,Dl if .oe, 10 bc The q,ocn and not the
slave SO 5.unt opha must have paid
great attc9' '.u 10 hrr dross. lut | scarcely
think she could have achieved such constant
success, or so complete had she not been
dresser born.
Then her manners in society We're cap
tivatng. Here | think the little mothers
homilieS were useful, indeed With what
graceful attention She heard what you had to
say! How modestly she gave her own
opinion She was well read, aud 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 Sibyl; and
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
iluence of her mother was perceptiblc, with
this difference. that the world in her mothers
language Signitied society, and nothing more,
while Sophia would have included in it the
whole of nature and life. | do not think |
ever saw any one who had such a simple and
walk in the woods was cnchantment to her;
and, on the other hand, | have seen her on
the tiptoe of plcaSurable excitement for a
ball She was no poetic recluse, she never
stunned society or it's pleasures, but rather
sought them. There was not a particle of
afectation about her: indeed, she retained
her girlishnesS and her love of girlish amuse-
ments for an unusually long time.
And she certainly remembered her mothers
teaching i'll another particular; she tried to
please. She knew that n woman ought to be
an object of admiration and affection, and
she ruled her whole life with this fact in
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 admles, not her eyes nose
or lips or 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
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 | tell you before the story ends how
Sophia Temple, Lady Beauty, at the age of
fifty-three, had a new lover, and what
lover he was.
One touch l must add to this picture.
Sophia was in the lest sense of the word
religious woman. without love- cries a
great novelist, 81 can fancy no gentleman"
y little efficiently | should add without re-
ligion | can fancy no lady. Sophia, piety
was in no way ohtrusive, never puritanical,
never ascctic, hut gentle, animated and
humane. Ii quite saved her from her moth
er's narrow and hcartleSs and merely spark
ling worldlmcsS. Sophia loved the world, but
had hope beyond it, and her religion gave Il
richness, Il sweetness, Il 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 d ME | hut women would often ask
dryly what vas for When | knew her well
enough to take such liberty, | ventured to
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 is forcible and striking. / believe
you said TO me yourself one day that Lady
Macbeth and some other eminent ladies Of the
whom we remember, made a suf-
ficiently vivid impression to satisfy both
sexes. You added something like this:
somewhat doubt if Lady Macbeth would he
altogether II success in the drawing room"
what then, is your idea of a woman"
asked
81 have drawn up a set of beauty rules"
she replied, rising and going to her desk
"They will lie the best answer to your ques-
ton" 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, | 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
lishwomen who can be like Sophia Temple if
they try. Whoever of my fair readers will
follow this amiable example shall be relieved
of the anxiety of CHANGING over her shoulder
for ever to see what brighter beauty of later
date and fresher charms may be coming up
behind, Youth and the attractions of youth
need not be despised by such a woman;
neither need they be envied, Her knowledge
of society, her ways of the world her fam
iliarity with character-these, together with
taste, refinement, virtue, and the desire to
please will give her the victory over time
Like our dear Lady Beauty, she, too, shall be
charming to her latest day.
CHAPTER VII.
ROXING MATCH