Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-06-11

was lB hllef Aug DOpllhh HhbuAe IA 81
phia's facet
She was the best dresser / ever knew. OF
color, either by study or natural gift, she
was a perfect mistress. Accordingly her ap-
pearance pleased numbers Of people before
they saw her face; and many q time as 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 by the harmony
or the contrast Of their hue. Flowers, rib
bons, brooches, all that sets of dress, she used
with the most unerripg taste. And she man
aged through all the changes Of fashion to re-
spect herself and her own figure and face; in
the fashion she always would be, but still she
modulated it so as to be the queen and not the
slave. No doubt Sophia must have paid
great attention to her dress, but l scarcely
think she could have achieved such constant
success, or so complete, had she not been a
dresser born.
Then her manners in society were cap
t~ivating. Here | think the little mothers
homilies were useful, indeed. With what a
graceful attention she heard what you had to
say! How modestly she gave her own
opinion! 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 a great deal Of
humcr, 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 il she tried.
She loved the world. Hefe again the iL
tiuence of her mother was ~perceptible, WIFI
this difference, that the world in her mothers
language signiGed 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
unaffected enjoyment in living as she. A
walk in the woods was enchantment to her;
and, on the other hand, l have seen her on
the tiptoe of pleasurable excitement for a
ball. She was 10 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
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 q woman ought to be
an object of Arbitration 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 a man admires, not her eyes or nose
OF lips or waist; the whole w~oman-person,
dress, manner, talents and character.
Frenchwomen are in this respect more far
sighted than our English ladies, but even
F%renchwomen 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 | tell you before the story ends how
Sophia Temple, Lady Beauty, at the age o.
ffty-three, had a new lover, and what {
lover he was.
One touch l must add to this picture
Sophia was in the best sense Of the word 9
religious woman. "Without love-" cries 9
great novelist, Al can fancy no gentleman.
A little diffidently l should add, without re
ligion l can fancy no lady. Sophia's piety
was 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 a hope beyond it, and her religion gave 6
richness, a sweetness, a seriousness to all hel
charms.
must admit, however, that many of Lady
Beauty's W sex declared her to be nothing
particular. That men admired her was no
70 be denied, but women would often asl
drylv what it was for. When | knew her wei
enough to take such a liberty, | ventured t.
say to her one day that, greatly as she wa
praised by our sex, her WI appeared to de
cline to accept her as by any means repre-
sentative. She laughed with much gayety.
"Some CT u.s." she replied, admire in our
selves what is forcible and striking. l / eliev
you said to me yourself one day that Lad.
Macbeth and some other eminent ladies of tn,
imagination, whom we remember, made a sui
fciently vivid impression to satisfy bot
sexes. You added something like this:
somewhat doubt if Lady Macbeth would b
altogether a success in ehe drawing room"
"What, then, is your idea Of a womanY'
asked.
81 have drawn up a set Of beauty rules,
she replied, rising and going to her desl
"They will he the best answer to your que
ton" She laughed with great sportivenes
so that / could not tell whether she was jes
ing or in earnest.
So she gave me her beauty rules there an
then. But these | reserve for the last chal
ter of this story, when, in parting with m
, readers and my heroine, l shall narrate tw
curious Illustrations of her power to please.
Irepeat, this story is written for the il
, s~tructlon of the tens of thousands of EN-
lishwomen who can he like Sophia Temple
they try. Whoever of my fair readers wi
|, follow this amiable example shall be relieve
, of the anxiety of glancing ov@ her should'
for ever to see what brighter beauty of lat
7 date and fresher charms may be coming u
. behind. Youth and the attractions of yout
need not be despised by such q woman
: neither need they be envied. Her knowledf
: of society, her ways of the world, her fan
!. iliarity with character-these, together vii
! taste, refinement, virtue, and the desire
: please, will give her the victory over tim
: Like our dear Lady Beauty, she, too, shall
charming to her latest day.