Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-03-13
The FitZrOy Vases.

What I am about to relate is abso-
EUteIy true. 1t has never appeared in
type before [ shall merely make a
necessary change in names and To-
Gale, leaving the facts exactly as they
were detailed to me by one personal
~ interested in the story.
In a rambling old rectory in the
MidIauds there had stood for more
than forty years two china vases-not
specially admired or valued by the
owner = busted by the sacrilegious
hands of every chance housemaid, yet
CUriously enough, unbrOken during
that long period of time. There were
quantities 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 more dignified &C.
cIesiastical title as we'll, died. Like
DIR. Bardwell, che glided almost i'm
perceptibly from the world" and left
his china behind him. "Hence these
tears.''
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 settle
nlent, however, James Fitzroy said to
70 those
vases out of the hall more for auld
lang syne than anything else" To
which Robert replied, with generosity
more conspicuous than discrimination,
S'All right; 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 barrister by profession and
e farmer by preference took his spoil
away. The vases were placed in the
drawing groom of his country home,
where his wife, partly because her
husband from old associations attach
ed value to them, busted them her.
self.
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
= rew subject. The ipaptitude of
~one's friends sometimes get worn
4Izreadbare under discussion in the
country, and violent efforts after nov
city have to be res orted to. The err
rent gaze lighted on the strange vases,
and the quest was over.
ooh, what lovely vases! Where did
YOU get them, Mrs. Fitzroy?"
tFThey came from my husbands
fathers. We're they not in the room
wheR you called last, Mrs. Hemming?''
ono, am sure that they were not.
7 Go admire them tremendously;d don't
you?" Here the visitor crosses the
room to inspect the delicate ware
more closely. The pantomime of de-
votion which follows can be more
easily imagined than described.
<eI like them very WE'LL" replied the
hostess, unsympathetically; "but [
have seen a great many vases that l
like better"
The visitor returns to her seat, but
cannot keep her eyes and thoughts
from the object of her admiration.
A week afterwards Mrs. Hemming
called again. This time she is accom-
panied by Lady Sarah Mordaunt, who
IS unknown personally to Mrs. Fitz-
roy, but who is an ardent chinamani-
&C Mrs. Hemming introduces her
friend. Together they strike becom-
ing, appreciative, and, to the unsym-
pathetic, somewhat Iudicrous atti
tuCes before their idol. Mrs. Fitzroy
plays second fiddle to her own china.
Lady Sarah Mordaunt is even louder
in her praises than Mrs. Hemming.
Together they insist, unmoved by the
passive resistance of their hostess, on
removing the contents of glass case
hitherto filled with brio "a brio, and
Installing in its place the two vases.
Departing with a solemnity becoming
to the occasion, they thus eXhort Mrs.
Fitzroy: eff 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
WHIP"
Lady Sarah Mordaunt, with, indeed,
an enthusiasm worthy of the cause,
was quite rude about it. The world
outside chinamania is, to the true be-
Iiever, very much what Macedonia
was to Athens in the day of Pericles
Il barbarism only to be touched with
tongs.