Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and Misdoings — John Shaqi
Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and MisdoingsMarsh, Richard
General
Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and Misdoings
Marsh, Richard
England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Girls -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
"'The motto chosen is singularly appropriate'--By the way, the motto
chosen was 'Who goes slowly, goes safely and goes far,' so everyone
who knows her will perceive its peculiar fitness. Now do just listen
to this Johnny, and I ask the lady herself if he doesn't credit her
with exactly those qualities which she hasn't got--'Patience and
thoughtfulness, a high standard of honour, clear-sightedness,
resolution combined with a sweet and tranquil temper,'--what ho!--'are
all clearly shown. The writer is strong on both the moral and the
intellectual side. A large and beautiful faith is obvious. To a serene
tranquillity of temperament is united a keen insight and a calm
persistence in following to a successful issue well-considered
purposes, instinct with a lofty rectitude.'--As an example of how not
to delineate character from handwriting, I should say that takes the
record."
I felt myself that here and there that expert was a trifle out. I
certainly should not have called the sentence selected "singularly
appropriate" to me. Nor should I have laid much stress upon my
patience or my thoughtfulness. I had not been hitherto aware that I
was the owner of "a sweet and tranquil temper," or of "a serene
tranquillity of temperament," or of "calm persistence." Indeed, there
were one or two little matters in which I more than suspected that
that character reader was a trifle at fault. But, after all, these
were questions of opinion, and had nothing to do with the real point,
which was, that I had won the hundred pounds.
When we returned home I went upstairs, fetched my desk, carried it
down to the morning-room, and prepared to write and tell everyone of
my good fortune. In the frame of mind in which I was, it was not a
piece of news which I was disposed to keep to myself. I opened the
desk, got out the note-paper, found the pen, and just as I had got as
far as--"My darling Hetty,--I've won a fortune! You never will guess
how!"--I thought of Miss Winston's sentence. It was that which had
brought me luck. I was convinced of it. If it had not been for the
motto which that curiosity in character readers had found so
singularly appropriate, I seriously doubted if I should have won. The
least I could do was to kiss it, in memory of the writer.
I had placed it--after making those six copies--in an envelope which I
had endorsed "Miss Winston's Motto." I laid down my pen, raked out the
envelope, took out the sheet of paper. On it was the sentence, not in
Miss Winston's small, exquisite penmanship, but in my own great
sprawling hand. For a moment or two I stared at it in bewildered
surprise. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, I understood what had
happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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