For Our Lady Readers.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 32, 17 December 1897, Page 20

For Ou r Lad y Rea ders.

WHAT IS AMIAMLITY ? i Is it beauty ? No ; a person who is only pretty would be attractive certainly, but — for a short time ; and however faint may be the indication, yet when we discover under this charming exterior a cold heart, a false spirit, an irritable or vain soul, we are repelled, Something else is necessary to attract the heart. Is it an elegant toilet .' No ; though it may charm the eye if it be fresh, simple, and in good taste, yet if we perceive merely a desire to please for the sake of winning flattery and praise, the charm does not last. Something else is necessary to attach the heart. Is it s ience .' No ; if it exists alone, and. above all, in a proud, pedantic, or disdainful mind, it repels instead of attracting vs — compels us to feel ashamed of our own ignorance. Something more than science is necessary to attach the heart. Is it virtue in general .' No ; particularly if it has not learned, as St. Paul recommends, to make itself all things to all men. Of course without virtue it is impossible, for any length of time, to be perfectly amiable ; but we must not conclude from, this that virtue, under whatever form it presents itself, is amiable. If the person with whom I live makes me say every instant : " Do not be so har^h, have a little more compassion in your heart ; be more gentle, more tolerant for my poor faults, which I try hard to correct, but which are always rebelling ; do not be so sharp in discovering what I do wrong, and do not make me feel that I am less virtuous than you," she would never attract me to her or to the good God. Something else is necessary to attach the heart. mother ! I would fain put in a plea for that old-fashioned, old-time name of " mother." You l'arely hear it now-a-days ; all sorts of nicknames have taken its place. Names with the reverence, the sacredness, left out, names of equality, nay, superiority on the part of the child they are patronising, familiar, common. But should not a mother and child be familiar l Ah, yes, but in a different way. With all the most blissful intercourse, with all the sweetest companionship, and all the most absolute confidence ; with the gayest sympathetic fun and frolic. A ROYAL CINDERELLA. The romantic history of the wooing of the Empress of Austria is quite like the delightful old story of Cinderella. Elizabeth Amelia Eugenia was her full name. She was a Princess of a branch ot the House of Bavaria, a cousin of the unfortunate King Ludwig, and was brought up very quietly indeed. The residence of the family was at the Castle of Sasenbofen, on the Lake of Starnberg, and they used to spend their summers at Ischl, in the Austrian Alps. Ai.d heie it was that the little girl began her love story. She was still quite little — only sixteen years of age. No lovers had as yet sought her hand. All that she knew of romance she kne;v from her sister Helen, who from childhood had been affianced to Francis Jot-eph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. But Princess Helen was to be cut out by Princess Elizabeth — the Cinderella of the Bavarian House. The Emperor Francis Joseph was that year at Ischl, and when his mother, the Archduchess Sophia, was giving a ball, he insisted that the Princess Elizabeth, of whom he had caught passing glimpses in the streets of Ibchl, should receive an invitation. •• But Elizabeth is not yet out." protested her mother, the Duchess Louise. •' Then let her come out." replied the ardent young Emperor. •• But she didn't expect any invitations, and she's got nothing to wear.' said the mother in ularm. '■ No matter." said the Emperor ; let her come in the simplest of dresses, with a rose in her hair, and she will be the queen of the feast." So Cinderella was allowed to come at the Emperor's command, and the Emperer outraged the proprieties, and danced with her all the evening. The sequel was eventually the little Cinderella being made Tnipress of Austria, while her sister, who had expeoted to share this exalted post with the Emperor, was among her most ardent well- \\ isheis. and h> j rbelf afterwards became the wife of the Prince of Thin v and Taxis.