Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-06-24


while Sophia would have incluted "a it tho
whole Of nature and life. 40 not think /
ever saw any one who had sack simple and
unaffected enjoyment IN living As she A
walk In the woods was enchAntment 10 her;
and, on the other hand, I have seen her on
the tiptoe of pleasurable excitement for
ball She was no poetic recluss; she navel
summed society or its pleasures, but rAthfg
sought them There was not n particle of
affectation 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 in another particular; she tried to
please. She knew that woman ought to be
an object 81 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 1t Is the
woman a man admires, not her eyes or 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
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 1 tell you before the story ends how
Sophia Temple, Lady Beauty, at the age of
fifty-three, had a new lover, and what a
lover he was. + ...
One touch / must add to this picture.
Sophia was in the best sense of the word
religious woman. without love-" cries
great novelist, II can fancy no gentleman.
A little diffidently should add, without re-
ligion l can fancy no lady. Sophia's piety
was i'll 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
Beautys 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
prat;ed by our sex, her own appeared to de-
clipe to accept her as by any means repre-
sentative She laughed with much gayety.
"Some of u.s." 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
imagination, whom we remember, made suf-
Gciently vivid impression to satisfy both
sexes. You added something like this: l
somewhat doubt if Lady Macbeth would be
altogether success in the drawing room"
"What, then is your idea of womanp
asked
II have drawn up a set Of beauty rules"
she replied, rising and going to her desk.
"They will tie the best answer to your ques-
ton" She laughed with great sportiveness,
SO that l 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 glancing 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 woman;
neither need they be envied. Her knowledge
of society, her ways of the world, her fam
iliarity with character-tbese, 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.