When Alcides, having gone
through all the fatigues of life, took a bride in Olympus, he ought
to have selected Minerva, but he chose Hebe.
I wonder why so many people call him 'Willie' Beresford, at his age.
Perhaps it is because his mother sets the example; but from her lips
it does not seem amiss. I suppose when she looks at him she recalls
the past, and is ever seeing the little child in the strong man,
mother fashion. It is very beautiful, that feeling; and when a girl
surprises it in any mother's eyes it makes her heart beat faster, as
in the presence of something sacred, which she can understand only
because she is a woman, and experience is foreshadowed in intuition.
The Honourable Arthur had sent us a dozen London dailies and
weeklies, and we fell into an idle discussion of their contents over
the teacups. I had found an 'exchange column' which was as
interesting as it was novel, and I told Francesca it seemed to me
that if we managed wisely we could rid ourselves of all our useless
belongings, and gradually amass a collection of the English articles
we most desired. "Here is an opportunity, for instance," I said,
and I read aloud-
"'S.G., of Kensington, will post 'Woman' three days old regularly
for a box of cut flowers.'"
"Rather young," said Mr. Beresford, "or I'd answer that
advertisement myself."
I wanted to tell him I didn't suppose that he could find anything
too young for his taste, but I didn't dare.
"Salemina adores cats," I went on. "How is this, Sally, dear?-
"'A handsome orange male Persian cat, also a tabby, immense coat,
brushes and frills, is offered in exchange for an electro-plated
revolving covered dish or an Allen's Vapour Bath.'"
"I should like the cat, but alas! I have no covered dish," sighed
Salemina.
"Buy one," suggested Mr. Beresford. "Even then you'd be getting a
bargain. Do you understand that you receive the male orange cat for
the dish, and the frilled tabby for the bath, or do you get both in
exchange for either of these articles? Read on, Miss Hamilton."
"Very well, here is one for Francesca-
"'A harmonium with seven stops is offered in exchange for a really
good Plymouth cockerel hatched in May.'"
"I should want to know when the harmonium was hatched," said
Francesca prudently. "Now you cannot usurp the platform entirely,
my dear Pen. Listen to an English marriage notice from the Times.
It chances to be the longest one to-day, but there were others just
as remarkable in yesterday's issue.
"'On the 17th instant, at Emmanuel Church (Countess of Padelford's
connection), Weston-super-Mare, by the Rev. Canon Vernon, B.D.,
Rector of St. Edmund the King and Martyr, Suffolk Street, uncle of
bride, assisted by the Rev.
