Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 86, February, 1875Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 86, February, 1875
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Ye gods! could it be? Here were last summer's styles, airs and grimaces,
served up as it were cold. I could pick out bad copies of each girl I
had flirted with the past season. You remember Florence Rich at The
Resort?--here was her portrait in caricature. Florence was the vainest
girl I ever knew, and showed it too. But she was vain of herself. This
country Florence was vain of a new silk that I would have taken the odds
she was wearing for the first time. She looked as if she were saying
with every rustle, "Admire me!" though of course she wasn't, you know.
She was constantly arranging her bracelet or smoothing her glove, and
looking on this side and that to see if any one was observing her. By
this means she gave her admirers the benefit of her full face, showing
both earrings; then of her profile, showing one earring and her curls;
and then of the back of her head, showing her fall bonnet. Her little
black veil ended just where her nose needed a shade. It is needless to
mention that she looked at me as she passed and gave me a smile _à la
profile_, which was ostensibly aimed at a pale young man near the
church-door.
On they came, looking like the remnants of my summer's feast--the supper
after my season's dinner--stale and repelling to my satiated palate. On
entering I saw the ghost of "the Soprano" at the head of the choir, with
less voice and more affectation. The same glances of envy that had been
shot from angry eyes at The Resort I now saw passing between angry eyes
here. The church was full of imitations of this kind, or were they only
inferior originals of the same type?
I learned afterward that the girls of the town were divided into two
classes--the followers of Miss Loude, who was fast and flashy, and the
imitators of Miss Weighty, who affected the quiet style, did not visit
indiscriminately, and was considered "stuck up" by the townspeople,
being the daughter of a retired grocer. During the service they all
looked at me. Some who were of the Loude school did it openly: those
after the Weighty pattern peeped clandestinely over their prayer-books,
through their fans, or between their fingers when praying. The more
clever would use strategy, shivering as if in a draught of air, and
looking around in my direction to see if a window were open, while the
mammas eyed me steadily through spectacles.
"I might have known it," I thought, exasperated: "'tis the same
everywhere, unless I should go to a country where the people are blind."
Dick Hearty, who was there with his sisters, came up after the service
and spoke to me. "Looking well, old fellow!" he said, as if I was not
sick of looking well. "Let me introduce you to my sisters."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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