A WOMAN WITH A GENIUS FOR INDISCRETIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 34, 22 August 1891, Page 300

A WOMAN WITH A GENIUS FOR INDISCRETIONS.

Mrs Lee looked up from the letter she was reading. ‘Cousin Charlotte is coming to spend a month with us,’ she said. There was a sudden silence ; startled dismayed glances passed around the breakfast table. Mrs David Lee, who had just been brought home a bride, asked, * Who and what is Cousin Charlotte ?’ The judge made haste to answer—‘ Miss Charlotte Bell is a most lovable woman of about thirty. She has a fine intellect and a warm heart. There is no scheme of philanthropy in which she does not take part.’ ‘ She is a beauty, too !’ exclaimed one of the boys. *1 do not know a more beautiful woman. ’ • She is a faithful Christian,’ said Mrs Lee, gravely. ‘ If she is perfection why do you dread her coming ?’ Mrs David asked* her husband when they rose from the table. • Wait and you will see,’ he said. Cousin Charlotte telegraphed the next day, • Coming on night train.’ There were six trains that night from London. Judge Lee and David haunted the station from six o’clock until two in the morning, but no Cousin Charlotte. The night was cold and stormy, and the judge went home aching with lumbago. All of the next day and night some of the Lee family were on guard at the station, but they watched in vain. Two days later she arrived gay and smiling. ‘ You expected me ? Too bad ! I changed my mind, and really forgot to wire you. I must ask you to look after my trunk. I haven’t the least idea what I have done with it.’ For two days David was busy sending telegrams in every direction for the missing luggage, while Cousin Charlotte forged upon the girls’ wardrobes for gowns, collais, and other such things. Miss Bell never rose in time for breakfast, and was sure to be absent at luncheon and dinner time. Her meals therefore, had to be prepared separately. The cook rebelled, the chambermaid gave warning. Cousin Charlotte made numerous appointments with people concerned in benevolent w’ork to come to the bouse, and then went out and forgot them. She always kept the family waiting an hour for her to dress when they were going to a concert or lecture. She appointed a conference with discharged prisoners for the same evening that Mrs Lee had chosen for a reception in honour of the bride. The gay young people and the quondam thieves and burglars met in the parlour. Through all these discomforts Miss Bell passed, smiling airily. ‘ Really, I forgot,’ or, ‘ the matter was so petty it escaped my notice,’ was her only apology. With her heart full of kindness to all the world, she had a singular facility for saying unpleasant things. She denounced the Pope to a Catholic, insisted on helping a Jew to ham and oysters, and described the horrors of a death from consumption to a young girl already hectic with that disease.