Ten Minutes’ Chat.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 878, 28 December 1888, Page 8

Ten Minutes’ Chat.

An old woman is a privileged quiz I am an old woman, a widow and a grandmother. After being for most of my life the head of a large family, I find myself at sixty the sole occupant of a big house iu Belgravia, which was once full from garret to cellar of life and youth, and (not to be a vain old lady) beauty too. Well, well, Father Time; with his unsparing hand, has taken away my good husband by death, and, one by one, my children by marriage, until, but for one interest in me which never dies, I should be a very lonely soul indeed. That interest, which 1 take as keen a delight in at sixty as at sixteen, is the study of mankind. In a word, to let you into a secret which may well -make yonng readers smile,' I. love society ; not, believeme, in a frivolous way, but as a student of human nature. I love to find a seat in a well-filled rpom at a reception in the season, and to study the expressions on the different faces of the guefcts I see, and to try and trace the cause and effect of such and such a meeting, expected'or otherwise, between friends and acquaintances. My friends know my little weakness, and, at the same time, take pity on my loneliness ; therefore I, receive plenty of invitations in the London season to

kettledrums, and private conoerts, . and receptions—quite enough, I do assure you, to make me glad to get away to my eldest daughter’s place in thei country to recruit my shattered nerves, as soon as the chestnuts are on the wane, and the du3t in the Drive unbearable. To let you into another secret : I sometimes make a little money out of the information I pick up in Lady Heathfield’s drawing-room, or at the Countess Bravo’s card-parties. If you still wonder how, yon must be rather stupid my dear young friends. If you ever read in print, for instance, my last night’s experience I I was at Mrs Campbell-Mavis's reception, the third of a series of musical evenings which that charming woman is holding this season. The room was full to overflowing, as that charming woman's rooms always are ; so full, indeed, that if a couple could tolerate each other’s society the whole evening, they talked without attempting to move from the cornet where they had unexpectedly become fixed. I waß lucky to get a seat, but my friends spoiled me in this respect. They knew that I did not care to be introduced to any one, and that a seat in any corner whore the gnests passed by me, so that I was out of the draught, was the extent of my wishea. Sitting quite near me I noticed a young - married woman of seven or eight and twenty, with soft wavy hair, and eyes which seemed always laughing, even when her grave and sensitive mouth was in repose. This gave a quaint and striking effect to the face, and no doubt first attracted me. As a very young girl I could picture her most lovely, a-little while ago, when doubtless she had a slight and graceful figure. I do not mean to say she. was not sweet and lovable still, but the figure was a shade too matronly, the whole contour inclined to be stout. Presently Mrs Campbell-Mavis swept by me, carrying in her train a gentleman whom che introduced to my interesting neighhour. ‘Allow me’—l could not catoh the name —‘ to introduce Captain Polly blank.' That gentleman bowed. ' • May I have the pleasure of taking you down to refreshments?’ he said, dropping his eyeglass. ‘Many thanks/ she answered in a natural and unaffected voice, ‘if you can get me out; 1 have been a prisoner in this corner all tho evening; and on second thoughts, I’ll change my mind. I think I prefer to stay where I am; we shall be leaving in ten minutes.’ ' - Captain Pollyblank was much too bored to take any trouble - to help the lady out, the ' age of chivalry and respect to ladies having passed away. Yet he was evidently attracted ; by a certain ring of pleasant good-nature in the lady’s voice, therefore he chose to amuse her with his tongue. Now as tho Captain spoke I watched him. He was a man of any age between thutyfive and fifty, and the affected drawl of his voice seemed familiar to me. Where had I seen him before ?—that wiry frame and shambling gait, which he attempted to disguise behind the fashionable limp of the day ; those round black ©yes and blas6 expression ; that heavy waxed moustache and opera-bat, with which he had tho cool impudence to fan his partner. Ah ? this impudence assists my recollections. Now I have it ? Captain Pollyblank was the very man who flirted so desperately with my Blanche—let me seeten years ago ? He had not a particularly good reputation in those days, and there were grave doubts that the regiment of which he was captain existed only in his own imagination. Yes, now I look at him again I recognise him. He was the man my eons used so much to dislike..' When he was in love with Blanche they put a stop to it, and called him a ‘dark horse.’ Ah! I remember all about him—-this is interesting ; I shall be amused. Dear ! how loudly the man talks ! That’s all the better ; I am growing very deaf. ‘I have only just come home,’ he said, twirling Lis moustache. ‘ Been abroad ?’ the lady asked, eyeing the Captain’s face curiously. • Yes ’ —with a yawn— ‘ been exploring in South America for ten years ; sent out there by the Geographical Society principally. Been awfully bored.’ ‘Sold out of'your regiment?’the lady asked, with just sufficient interest to be ojite. . .. . : .

‘Yes, sold out before I went, spent the money, and turned up again like a bad halfpenny, don't you know.’ * How do you think yonr old friends wear V ‘ . ‘ Deuced well! been looking them up ; find I remember them better than they do=me. By Jove ! what a case of spoons over there ! ’ ‘Yea; it’s a desperate oase, I can tell you,’ she answered, laughing. ‘ They are iD earnest, I can see.’ • Pooh 1’ he said, with disgust, ‘ I like thatl In earnest, indeed ! It’s a passing smite, that's all. Why, I was just such a fool about a girl before I went away. Do I bore you ?’ ‘No,’ the lady answered. ‘We met very often, and ehe was a dear little thing—an Irish girl of seventeen. She took a fancy to me from the first, and was not enough woman of the world to hide her feelings, don’t you know. We saw a lot of each other, and I was amused by her ready wit at first, attracted by her tendreßse for me in the second place, and ended by finding her deuced fascinating. She was awfully pretty in those days, though I daresay she has gone to seed by this time. Ten years from a woman’s life takes a good slice off her beauty.’ ‘And what about a man?’ said the lady, in a huff.

‘ .Well, look at me, and judve for yourself, ’ answered the Captain, staring boldly at her.

• I don’t think muoh of you,’ she said, giving him back his stare. ‘By Jove ! I like you for that; women generally flatter a. fellow so,’he whispered, in a sort of caressing way which men of his stamp use to every good-looking woman of their acquaintance. ‘ Well,’ he continued, ‘ we had met at a picnic at Bushey one hot June day, and, as good luck would have it, I turned up the next night at a dance, and saw her again. She was in a dilemma. The young married friend who chaperoned her had gone off early, in a huff. I arranged all that. The chaperon played into my hands, and my little darling had no one to see her home. Of course I offered my seivioes, and of course she thanked me and accepted them; and accordingly, at three in the morning, we found ourselves out alone under the stars. I could not get a cab anywhere. The dqar little girl’s hand trembled on my arm, and the tears an Irish girl knows how to allow to gather in her eyes without falling over her face enhanced her beauty and made her quite bewitching in my sight. Of course I comforted her, and she leaned a bit heavier on my arm, and plucked up sufficient courage to say she thought, if she might lean a little now and then, she could manage to walk all the way. Considering we were in West Kensington and the friend with whom she was on a ,visit lived at Grosvenor Gate, this was impossible ; but what to do I did not know. At last a private brougham rolled lazily by, evidently on its way to the stables after the Opera. Finding it was empty, I ran into the road and bribed tho man to drive na home. If he was found out, coachy said, he should get the sack. A tip silenced any scruples he might have bad. “Jump in,” he said ; and the next moment my little Irish friend and I were leaning luxuriously baok against somebody else's cushions. ‘ She looked most fascinating, the pale moonlight lingering caressingly about her eyes. Her face was temptingly near to mine. By Jove, I was really in lov6 ! I felt I would give anything in the world to kiss !’ ‘ So what did you do ?’ ‘ I proposed to her.’ * Nonsense !’

‘I did, though ; I proposed to her. She accepted me; that gave me the right to kiss her. I folded her in my arms and kissed her again and again, dear little girl, and by the time our drive was over I broke it off.’

‘ For shame 1 for shame 1 How dare you ! What did you say ?’ * I told her I was ashamed of myself ; but her beauty was my excuse. I could not help kissing her, she was so lovely ! I could not kiss such a proud little maiden unless by proposing I had the right ; but that, as I knew Bhe had no money, and I had not a brass farthing, we must be sensible people, and part.’ ‘ You never loved her, of course, or you would not mention tha subject to a stranger.’

‘I did love her, ten years ago, for one hour on a summer night.’ ‘And she ?* said the Captain’s oompanion, raising her eyes. ~‘O, she went baok to Dublin and fretted herself into an ugly old woman, for all I know. ’

*Do you know, I think you were a scoundrel, showing, as you seem proud to tell, the meanest side of human nature, the most selfish side, to an innocent young girl ? At the same time, if I understand anything of a woman’s character, let me tell you that an Irish girl’s ‘ ready wit ’ would teach her to set no more value on that kiss than it was worth. Coming from such a man ’ (with a bow) ‘as Captain Pollyblank, if I believed your story, which Ido not— ’ iu a voice of acorn.

‘Believe ifc.J ’ said the Captain, looking slightly uncomfortable ; ‘ I can vouch for its truth. I will tell you the girl’s name if you like.’

*lf you dare 1 ’ said the lady, this time with muoh heat.

* By Jove, I dare ! ’ the Captain answered, losing his temper. . ‘Her name was Eily Doyle.’ A tall, aristocratic-lookiDg man, whcm recognised to bo Lord Charles Blaokington, at that moment joined the couple I had been quizzing Ho was a clever speaker in the Honße ; owner of a fine estate in Cheshire, a shooting in Scotland, and a house in Mayfair ; but until now I did not know he wae this pretty woman’s husband. She stretched her band out, and drew him to her, and turning to the Captain, she said very quietly, * This is my husband. Charlie, let me introduce Captain Pollyblank. I want you, dear, to tell this gentleman my maiden name.’

Lord Blaokington looked the Captain calmly down from bead to foot. After a pause, • My wife’s maiden name was Eily Doyle ten years ago,’ he said, looking with love into her bonny face, * but why ?' ‘ I’ll tell you another time,’ she answered, laughing.. Rising from her chair, she slipped her arm in that of her husband, and, still smiling, she made the Captain a profound bow and swept from the room.

To think I should have lived for sixty years to become guilty of Buch a serious breach of good manners as to laugh out loud in the middle of my charming hostess’s song —such a superb voice, too ! Last night I forgot myself; but tho dismay, the discomfiture of Captain Pollyblank, the lady-killer',' must be my excuse for my rude and most unladylike behaviour at my young friend Mrs Campbell-Mavis’s reception.