LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 449, 22 November 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

FINE WEATHER AND FAIR WOMEN.

{From the Argosy.)

One fine August morning saw a large partyassembled in the sunny breakfast room at Leighton Court, in shire, the finest place in the county, with the finest park, and the best croquet-lawn in the neighbourhood.

A merry gathering. Mr Leighton and his wife, surrounded by an unusually numerous family party, still increased on that occasion by several visitors. Mr Leighton had been twice married, and two of his daughters by his first wife had been mothers long enough to add fair opening blossoms to the family wi’eath; while some of the present Mrs Leighton’s daughters were scarcely older than their half-nieces.

Mrs Leighton, herself an ex-beauty but little over forty, still bloomed amid her “ rose-bud garland of girls.” But, alas ! the group of fair feminine blossoms was almost entirely unshaded by the dark foliage of masculine attire. Two lads from Eton and Harrow, not yet escaped from the chrysalis stage of boyhood, and old Mr Leighton, who had long passed the butterfly period of existence, were the only representatives of the sterner sex. The rose-bud garland was a full one. Airy, fairy Lilians and stately Clara Vere de Veres mingled with little ones scarcely out of the nursery. Eancy the clatter of musical voices ! The boys, sons of a friend in India, and old Mr Leighton, had not a chance. 1 and my reader enter at a critical moment with the toast and the letter bag. Everyone seizes eagerly on his or her share of literature. Those who are not fortunate enough to have correspondents, take to the newspapers and periodicals ; and a momentary pause ensues. It is broken by Mr Leighton, who, looking up from his letter, asks, ‘ ‘ Isn’t your great croquet meeting to come off to-day ?’ £ Y es, ’ and‘Yes,’ with ‘So lucky, such a lovely day,’ being responded on all sides, he adds ; ‘ Then I daresay you won’t be sorry to hear that an eligible young man will be added to the number of your guests.’ Considering the circumstances above stated, it will readily be believed that this announcement caused general excitement among the population of the sunny breakfast room, and the babel of feminine voices broke loose again. ‘ Who is he ?’ ‘ Where does he come from ?’ * Who’s going to bring him ?’ ‘ Can he play croquet!’ With the added comments of ‘ We want men so dreadfully ; always the case down here; and worse than ever now the Brook Thompsons are away and Captain Anderson can’t come.’ And truly there seemed reasonable cause both for the rejoicings and the lamentations. One of the schoolboys, a precocious little man, attempted some assertion of masculine dignity by remarking that a pretty girl would have been a still more acceptable addition to the party ; but as this was taken as an insinuation that none such were

already present, the speaker got properly snubbed for his pains. Lady Marchmont, the eldest of Mr Leigli ton’s daughters, and mother of the handsome twins of eighteen. Flora and Frederica, more generally known by the abbreviations Flo and Fred, silenced the hubbub by a sign, and then inquired, with well assumed indifference, ‘ who, after all, this eligible might be.’ Mr Leighton protested he had only waited fora lull'in the storm to explain, which would be best done by reading aloud some portion of a letter from old Uncle John, meant to serve as an introduction to the new arrival.

‘ Uncle John writes to me,’ continued Mr Leighton, ‘ that his long delayed choice of a successor is at last made. A nephew of his late wife, who had recently returned from a long foreign tour, is, it appears, regularly installed at Oxenham Hall as heir-apparent. He says - but here I may as well read his own words. * This young man is all that I can desire ; with good looks and good parts, accomplished and amiable, free alike from the vices of a former generation and the follies of the present. lam satisfied that he will do honour to our name, which I intend him to take, and that he will nobly administer the wealth, of which I now feel that I, from indolence, have made but a selfish use.’ And now, young ladies, comes the gist of the matter, so lend me your ears, as somebody says in a play. The letter goes on —‘l feel that to you, my only near relation, whose son or grandson, had you had either, would have been my natural heir, I owe some explanation of my conduct, and ” —but I will have pity on your impatience, and tell you in fewer words than Uncle John uses, that he proposes, hopes, and wishes that his heir may find a wife among what he calls my numerous female relatives and descendants. Having heard that we are all now assembled together, he sends him over to make a selection : only regretting that the infirmities of age prevent his performing the introduction in person. ’ ‘ What a blessing !’ screamed half a dozen voices ; and ‘Do be quiet!’ half a dozen more ; while Mr Leighton continued. ‘He will probably arrive by the two o’clock train to day, in time for your party. So now I advise you all to combine archery with croquet, and see who can take the best aim at the hero’s heart, handsome, accomplished, and amiable; and, moreover, heir to Oxenham Hall and upwards of twenty thousand a year. Think of that, and, let’s see—is there anything else in the letter ? Oh, yes—his name is Smith ; not very aristocratic, certainly, but that doesn’t matter, as he’s to take ours. So now, girls, get yourselves up in your best. Choose your colours, train for the race, and good luck to the winner ? I must go and look at old Marmion’s legs. ’ So saying, the old gentleman walked off to the stables, as fast as gout would allow him, in the highest possible spirits ; the question of Uncle John’s ultimate disposal of the wealth, which was so entirely his own to will away, being thus, as it seemed, so happily solved. The man must be difficult to please, indeed, as he thought, who could not fix on a wife among the bevy of maidens, that even to less partial eyes must seem so fair. The Squire departed, and left behind him a scene of pleasurable excitement. Besides the Marchmont twins, Mrs Heathcote, the youngest of the first Mrs Leighton’s family, had one girl grown up, and three of the present Mrs Leighton’s daughters were supposed to be out. All were good-looking, m different styles; good tempered when not too much interfered with; giddy, as was natural to their age ; and fast and silly, as is, alas ! the normal condition of so many of their kind. There were present, besides, two other young ladies, quiet-looking girls, children of a deceased brother of Mr Leighton, who had been imprudent in Ihis wordly affairs, and left but a very scanty fortune to his widow and orphans. They were occasionally invited to Leighton Court by their good-natured uncle, who had no idea how ill they sometimes fared among their more prosperous and showy relatives. The important question, * What shall we wear ?’ of course derived additional interest from the recent announcement. * I suppose Fanny and Ann will appear again in those dreadful old washed-out piques,’ said one, alluding to the despised cousins. * I suppose so, too,’ returned Fanny, unabashed, ‘faute de mieux, cousin,’ ‘ Then I am quite sure one of you will captivate the heir, ’ was the taunting reply. A few minutes afterwards, another opportunity for mortifying the victims occurred. Mrs Heathcote announced that she had heard from her husband that he could not leave town so early as he expected, and he hoped if a person who was coming to see him on business from his lawyer should arrive before him, they would ‘treat him civilly,’ till he could join them. ‘Oh ! delightful! a lawyer’s clerk ; he will be a beau for Fanny and Ann. What a godsend for them, for otherwise there certainly would not have been one to spare. ’ ‘ Civilly, indeed ! what is papa thinking of ?’ cried another.

All this, if it did not show the good manners or good feeling of the more prosperous cousins, served at all events to exhibit the others in a favourable light, as their gentle faces expressed neither anger or mortification, Perhaps because they were used to it. And now the ladies rose ; the elder to seek their dressing-rooms, and confer with their maids, while the younger were hustled off to the schoolroom. To he continued.