The Virginia enterprise., 1898-09-16
Bah S Bright Babble

iaSL aknt weeks, have come tao the con-
sclusi0n that IL had daughter who
wished to enter the holy bonds of matri-
mony / would fetch her to Newport
Here everything Is dignifed and rich; no.
body friyols and nobody enjoys herself
| very much unless he happens to be richer
and more stupid than all the rest. and
then she Is spoken of with approval, and
everybody says she possesses 80 much re-
pose. They may call it .'repose'' l in
dress and dress and dress. Your clothes
must bear the stamp Of Worth, Red
fern and Paquin, while Virot must cover
However, each has his own time and
display for his own special smartness.
Paquln hts you out in some delicious cot
| maps madame would allow very little
more" and the very little more" means
$oU, but as the artist in dress assures
| madame that she would not have herself
appear as anything but perfection when
| IL IL a question of few dollars, and
madame is fattered, she pays her bill and
ls gladly fooled: Paquin dresses her for
the morning, when she stands out OH the
smOOtn green lawn with wonderful mass
| OF color before her, great parterres of
flowers, gorgeous tulips, bright roses and
rich, red geraniums all seeming to bow a
stately good morning to her.
| , A little later in the day and famous
french tailor whose name the We're de
we're set do not whisper permits my lady
of his creation, and then she goes on the
yacht built on the Clyde.
Inc AFTERNOON finds my lady dressed
by Worth. She is in some sort of a
sheeny looking silk, which seems covered
with roses, while on her head is small
nat made entirely of rosebuds. In her
hands, covered with white kid, is a para
sol made Of white, fluffy stuff, a handle of
PINK coral and gold, having cost enough
to really keep well to do family in
bread and butter and beef for the year.
MY lady rides in her victoria, large and
hung on U springs, SO that he motion is
as easy as il one were being rocked veri-
ne1;ygs ta6Iy on the bllows Of the ocean, with no
Up and down, up and down the car
rlages parade, while the pretty rider has
! cool bow for this one, a stately inclina-
alton OF her head for another and an al
most imperceptible bow for that other
person whom she barely knows.
Familiarity is not the thing at New
port; You are well acquainted with this
or that man or this Or that woman, who
went to the same dancing school with
you, who went to the same parties with
you and who has been educated in the
same artificial way you have. Oh.
don't mean that the very fashionable
women never do kindnesses, for they do
! many of them. When so much time is
given to dress, when so much thought
| must De given to having ones jewels re-
set and when one must entertain and
must visit, really, after all, how can one
have time to go among the poor and
| suffer agonies afterward, through seeing
how unpleasantly they are situated?
But we had a little romance here for
all. The most dignifed lady in the land
the one who traced her blue, blue blood
back to the beginning of the blue skies,
the woman to get into whose house meant
the entree to real society, concluded this
year to fetch one of her cousins from
| away down near New Orleans to visit
her. The lady-we will call her Nine
Grandame-was i'll reality lady, though
as she was an old one, how could you or
two small boy figures were brought in
cold in death, drowned while at their play,
and she was left childless? All, if we
| could read each others hearts, how few
| would be count as entirely selfish!
So Nine. Grandame, writing to her
cousin, said: "Send me on the prettiest
and brightest of your daughters. l pro-
pose to make her the success of the sea-
son. Don't trouble yourself about her
having large wardrobe, as one will come
| over from Paris for her" This letter
brought delight to the mother-a perplexi-
| ty for the three affectionate girls. The
youngest and prettiest said she didn't
want the old madame to condescend to
| her, she wouldn't wear her old truck,
and, being the oldest, it was Madeline's
place to go. But Madeline whispered of
| the man to whom she was engaged and
| how impossible it would be for her to
leave him. Then said she of the quick
! temper, Marion must go, for she's the
next Oldest and Marion whispered in
| her mother ear with much impressive
ness on, her part, and the mother said,
girls taken from me-"
|, So it happened, after all, that Effie had
to go. Each sister wanted to lend her
mething-fans, a new pair of gloves,
fine handkerchef-and all these kind
offers she accepted but she drew the line
at her mother going into debt one penny
to buy her a new frock. "For," said she
land she said it with a certain amount Of
defiancc), "if Newport and my wealthy
relatives don't approve of me, I can al
ways come honle,' and then, like the
good, affectionate creature she was, she
| threw herself into her mothers arms to
| be hugged and kissed as if she had just
celebrated her fifth birthday.
| Effie was something of surprise to
Mne. 0iinuaAAe. one uecllheu WIN ulS-
| nifty all the beautiful dresses and lovely
belongings, adding to her refusal: ut
was very kind of you to think of me, but
am sure when you and mother were
girls white mousseline gown was enough
| for you and her, and so it must be really
fine for me- Nine. Grandame quiyered
a little as she thought how the young girl
from the South would appear among the
richly ly-dresscd women and the gay, bright
mon of the world who would be around
her dinner table. The butler, with clev-
er foresight, had put neither orchids nor
| colcred flowers at the young girls place.
! but instead there was bunch of great
white roses half opened and tied together
loosely with white ribbon. My lady, Nine
Grandame, gave one glance at her cousin,
and was satisfied. The white mousseline
frock brought out to perfection the slim,
| girlish figure. About the waist was a
pale green ribbon sash, and about her
pretty neck was a string Of small but real
pearl beads. They were the very last
of her mothers wedding jewels.
During dinner Effie was pleasant to
ner somehow the men seemed to drift
where she stood, and in short time vari,
GUS strangers were offering invitations to
her cousin and chaperon. And so the days
/ went on, and in her print frocks in the
mornings, with the big leghorn hat hiding
| her face from the SUI, when she wore
her dainty colored lawns in the afternoons
and her white gowns in the evenings, the
girls who were very much dressed began
to look at her and wonder if simplicity
were not the right frame for youth. Effie
enjoyed her life as only good girl can,
! and her chaperon was too clever a woman
to open her eyes to the wickedness of this
world. @ /, ... .
One day they had little unpleasant
ness. Nine. Grandame thought that she
didn't quite understand what she was do
| ing when she refused the hand, handbook,
| four-in- hand and what he was pleased to
call heart Of the young man whose grand
father had probably arrived in this land
of the free in the steerage, not that that
was a disgrace to him, but as Etfie said,
z"Why should marry him when / love
somebody else and have accepted him'?'S
Then Nine. Grandame did lose her tenn
per. She. screamed. She had Fhysteria,
| and she only came to when she heard that
| the future husband of Effie was to be 4
gentleman whose fathers name was in the
peerage and who owned no end of boats,
steeragcs and all, and who had come over
in his pretty yacht, the Sphinx, to STE