The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-04


/ the County Families did not call at the
| house of the Honorable Mrs. Jameson.
This fact gradually dawned upofr~ the
torpid intellect of that day, and as Lady
Glenmire found things rather dull under
the roof of her sister-in-law dispensa-
ton from Mulliner was obtained and Mrs.
Jameson sent out invitations for cards
and tea" to the ladies of Crawford.
At first they all declared they would not
| go-not under any circumstances! But
| on second thought it was considered that
| their refusal would be evidence that they
really had cared about the previous pro-
: hibition of Mrs. Jameson-which they
had not; no, not in the leastl So instead
of "regretting that a previous engage
| ment, etc., they all accepted with
| pleasure the kind, etc"
They found Lady Glenmire very much
such a person as Martha had described
her to be. Ten pounds. my DEAR" said
| Miss Pole afterward would have pur-
chased everything she had on her" But
the ladies were little embarrassed at
! first, doubling as to what would be
proper subject on which to begin CONVEX
| sation with peeress.
| Miss Pole, however, broke the ice by re-
marking HAS your ladyship been at court
recently?"
yDear me, no." laughed the bird-like
! little woman. IT was never at court in
my life. 1 never was in London but
| twice, and that was after my marriage.
! Papa had such a large family he was
never able to take US anywhere except up
to Edinburgh once in great while"
The Crawford ladies gasped Here
| was a peerless who talked of being poor
as openly and unblushingly as Captain
| Brown had done. But they soon be-
! came warm friends of the bright, cheer
full little woman, and by the time they
| sab down to Ombre and Quadruple they
were calling her you" and "ma'am"
just at naturally and Familiarity as you
| please.
But do not think that the fundamen-
| tai law of Crnford society was shat
tered by Lady Glenmire's open remarks
| about poverty. Captain Browns Of
| tense of the same nature had been
passed over long ago with a plying
| a
head and the words, "the poor Captain -
Lady Glenmire's remark was set down
] at once as being one of those eccen-
/ tricities which the peerage" Is al
lowed to indulge, but which would be
! shockingly bad form In anybody else.
| Among themselves the ladies of Gran
| ford held strictly to their old laws
| of gentility, and any one of them who
had ventured to speak of being poor
| would, in spite of the Captain and the
! peerless, have been as reniorselessly ex-
PEELED from the charmed circle as a
| Grandee of Spain would have certain
ly been expelled from the court VIII o
had ventured to assert that the Queen
walked on legs. And served EN- right,
too. There are so many disagreeable
things In this world that the more We
can ignore the better.
Miss Matte, who since the dinner
at Woodley and the subsequent depart
ure of Mr.. Holbrook for Paris. had
been more than ever given to indulg-
ing in periods of silent meditation be-
fore the fire of evenings, one night
awakened from a revery to ask Miss
Smith, who was still her guest, to as
sist her in reading and destroying some
old letters which she would mot like
to have around after I am gone, my
dear"
They were old family letters of no
interest except to the dead whose hands
had penned or whose eyes had read
them in youth and middle life and old
| age-men and women now long since
dust and ashes, to so remain until this
| mortal shall have put on immortality.
The old letters, as they were read and
destroyed brought many "reminiscences
TO the lips of Miss Matty, and she told,
among other things, the story of her
brother Peter-a subject to which she
had never alluded before.
AS a boy Peter had been wild and
! frolicsome, and his father had been stern
with him. One day. after receiving a
severe chastisement, the boy had run