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charitable construction on jour conduct. Suffering as you did, in
such a situation, —or had it been any body else, —I should have
begged you to pay no attention to my presence, but to be as much
at ease as possible !”
“At ease !” thought the Major. “ What an idea ! —what a
strange woman.” His spoken words were of another sort.
“ I thank you, Mrs. Girardin, —from the bottom of my heart I
thank you, —for myself and son. lie, too, sends his thanks, though
too great a sufferer to offer them in person. He will present him
self as soon as lie is able. To you, and this sweet angel of a
daughter, we owe more than we can ever acknowledge.”
To this, the good lady had a set speech, deprecating all acknow
ledgments. The delight of doing good was sufficient for her. To
this the Major had his response ; to which the lady had hers ; the
former replied again; and Madame Agnes-Theresa answered him.
By and by, the Major began to speak more at his ease, and, after
a little while, making a prodigious leap from one point to another,
he exclaimed abruptly :
“ The fact is, my dear Mrs. Girardin, we have been all our lives
a couple of old fools—”
“ Sir r
“ I beg pardon,—a thousand pardons. I meant to say that I
have been a couple of old fools —not merely one fool —that would
not answer to express my sense of my stupidity for so many years
of my life. Xo, Madame, I have been a pair of fools; for living
beside you in the parish so long, knowing your worth, and the
honourable family to which you belong, yet never once seeking to
show my estimation of it. It is thus, my dear Mrs. Girardin, that
one will hunt for years after a treasure which is actually lving all
the while in his path —that one will sigh and yearn after posses
sions for which he has only to open his eves and stretch forth his
hands, —and that we hourly lament the growing weakness, wick
edness, and ignorance of the world around us, without being at
the proper pains to welcome and value the good, the great, the
wise and the virtuous, even when we find them. I have been a
fool of this description of forty horse power. By God’s blessing,
my dear Mrs. Girardin, and, with your favour. I will show that I
am recovering my senses. Permit me, then, to acknowledge my
past stupidity in not knowing you better, and do not punish the
offence, for which I feel a becoming remorse, by denying me per
mission to make proper amends in the future for the past.”
Madame Agnes-Theresa was proud, and vain, and haughty, and
clannish, and full of ridiculous notions of what was due especially
to herself and family, —but she was not wilful or perverse. Pro
perly appealed to, she was accessible, and, if she had no question
of the sincerity of the offender, she was forgiving. Besides, as
we have before hinted, her hostility to the Bulmer household arose
from pique and a mortified spirit. She did not hold herself aloof
from them, or toss her head haughtily when she heard them men
tioned, because she felt her superiority over them, but simply
because they seemed tacitly to assert theirs over her. Vain people
are easily mollified. The very attempt to mollify them, soothes the
self-esteem which you have outraged. Major Bulmer was a great
Beguiler of the sex. In his youth, a splendid figure, with a hand
some face, he was irresistible. Even now, his figure was noble and
erect, his eye open, manly, and of a glad, generous blue ; and his
whole air was that of the born gentleman. Madame Girardin did
not prove incorrigible. The signs of yielding were soon mani
SUPPLEMENT TO SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE..
fest, and when, pointing to an ancient portrait of a
armour, hanging against the walls, the Major afforded her ZZ
portunity of tracing the Girardin family to the fountain hZ
which they were content to claim, he made a formidable adC.
into the champagne country of her affections. He put her on tt
right strain, and she told the story which he had heard from other
sources a hundred times before, of that famous warrior, th** ] or j
Paul St. Marc Girardin, who accompanied Saint Louis to the 11 0 } V
Land, and helped to bury him there. Then the old lady showed
him the antique.seal ring of the family, the crest being a crosv
handled sword, the blade dividing a crescent at an awful swoop*
then followed the narrative of the Lord Paul St. Marc’s feats of
arms, his prowess, the number of ladies be saved, hearts he won
Turks he slew. The Bonneaus, the old lady was pleased to admit
had never been quite so distinguished as the Girardins, but they
too, had done no small mischief upon Turks’ heads and ladies’
hearts. To slaughter foes, and jilt damsels, hv the way was
among the fine people fifty years ago, the two preferred processes
for being honourably famous ; and, with all her religion and bigotrv,
the gcod grandmother held rather tenaciously to the old faith in
these performances.
And so the two talked away, and about the strangest things
strangely communicative, for the first time in their lives, to one
another, until, by the time the hour was ended, —you will scarce
believe it, dutiful reader of mine, hut it is a solemn and truthful
chronicle which I indite, —but, —certainly I shall surprise yon.
Prepare yourself. What think you then ? The old lady herself,
Madame Agnes-Theresa, taking Major Bulmer by the arm, actu
ally conducted him out to look at anew smoke-house she had been
building, and to show her new plans for curing hogs; then led him
away, in the same style, to look at Mjine new fowls of foreign va
rieties, roosters big as giraffes, and pullets that might have pacified
Polyphemus, which her factor had bought for her at the great
Fowl Fair in Charleston. “Fair is foul and foul is fair!” says
Shakspeare, so that nobody need be offended at my present collo
cation of words. The Fowl Fair in Charleston had contributed
largely to our grandmother's hen coop, and afforded material upon
which the old lady and her guest could expatiate with equal elo
quence. Little Paula thought there would be no end ot it; but
the sly little puss, seeing that things were going rightly, never in
terposed an unnecessary word, —and her forbearance displayed
eminent wisdom. Half the world are fools in this very particular.
They put in an oar, just when the boat is making the best head
way, with tide, wind and current in favour, They stop the cur
rents, they head the winds, and, in the effort to help progress,
mar the enterprise forever. Keep your tongues, fools; hold off
your hands, donkies, and let “ Go ahead ” and “Do well,” “ 011{
their own passages, without clapping unnecessary steam to their taih.
“Well,'’ quoth the old lady to Paula, after the Major had de
parted,—“well, my child, who would have thought it!
ever expected to see Major Bulmer in my house. Who ever list
ened to hear me welcome him! There’s some great change
hand, my child, when such tilings happen.”
“ The great change has happened, mamma.”
“ Yes; hut it always betokens other changes yet. The Major
has had a narrow escape. But ho is old, and he may have
sered some secret injury, of which he never dreams. When p u
pie thus suddenly change in their dispositions, look for a singular
