The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-04-11
The FitzrOy Vases.

lHe TltAiVy NhScS'
What | am about to relate is abso-
lutely true. 1t has never appeared in
type before. / shall merely make a
necessary change in names and locale,
leaving the facts exactly as they were
detailed to me by one personally inter-
ested in the story.
In rambling old rectory in the
Midlands there had stood for more
than forty years two china vases-not
specially admired or valued by the
owner--dusted by the sacrilegious
hands of every chance housemaid, yet,
curiously enough, unbroken during that
titles of china lying about and ranged
along the walls apparently of equal
or greater value. The place was vast
china warren; why, no one seemed to
know.
At the end of the forty years the
rector, who had a more dignified &C.
clesiastical title as well, died. Like
Mr.. Bardell, she glided almost imper-
ceptibly from the world " and left his
china behind him.
The rector left two sons, Robert and
James Fitzroy. The property was di-
vided pretty equally between the two,
except that to Robert, the elder, went
the furniture, pictures, plate and china.
Before the final settlement, however,
James Fitzroy said to Robert, " have
fancy for those two vases out in the
baltimore for auld lang syne than any
thing else" To which Robert replied,
with generosity more conspicuous than
discrimination, Cali right, l don't
care about them. You may have them
with pleasure"
The incident, which seemed to both
trivial enough, did not dwell in the
minds of either of the brothers. James,
who was harrister by profession and a
farmer by preference, took his spoil
away. The vases were placed in the
drawing-rOom of his country house,
where his wife, partly because her hus-
band from old associations attached
value to them, busted them herself.
One day lady of their acquaintance
called at The Briars. After the usual
platitudes about the weather and the
dizziness of the season the visitor
glanced round the room in search of a
new subject. The inaptitude of ones
friends sometimes gets worn thread
bare under discussion in the country
and violent efforts after novelty have
to be resorted to. The Grant gaze
lighted on the strange vases, and the
quest was over.
sob, what lovely vasesl Where did
you get them, Mrs. Fitzroy?"
"They came from my husbands
fathers. Were they not in the room
when you called last, Mrs. Hemming?"
"No, am sure they were not. | do
admire them tremendously, don't your"
Here the visitor crosses the room to in
spect the delicate ware more closely.
The pantomime of devotion which fol-
lows can be more easily imagined than
described.
=" | like them very WE'LL" replies the
hostess, unsympathetically; Is but
have seen great many vases that l
like better"
The visitor returns to her seat, but
can not keep her eyes and thoughts from
the object of her admiration.
A week afterward Mrs. Hemming
calls again. This time she is accom-
panied by Lady Sarah Mordaunt, who
is unknown personally to Mrs. Fitzroy
but who is an ardent chinamaniac
Mrs. Hemming introduces her friend.
Together they strike becoming, appre-
ciative and, to the unsympathetic, some
what ludicrous attitudes before their
idol. Mrs. Fitzroy plays second fiddle
to her own china. Lady Sarah Nor
daunt is even louder in her praises
than Mrs. Hemming. Together they
insist, unmoved by the passive resist
ance of the hostess, on removing the
contents of glass case hitherto filled
with bric-a-brac and installing in its
place the two vases. Departing with
a solemnity becoming to the occasion
they thus exhort Mrs. Fitzroy: "It
you and your husband do not really
value this china, why not send it to
Messrs. Christie & Manson, and let
them sell it TO some one who will?''
Lady Sarah Mordaunt with, indeed,
an enthusiasm worthy of the cause, was
quite rude about it. The world outside
chinamania is, to the true believer, very
much what Macedonia was to Athens
in the day of Pericles-a barbarism only
to be touched with the tongs.
These exhortations sunk deep into
the receptive soul of Mrs. Fitzroy and
eventually permeated even the more
pachydermatous entity which composed
her husband. The barrister communi.
Gated with the famous firm of auc.
tioneers. They asked for description
of the china, which was given. Ulti-
mately, by their advice, the vases were