KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



109 



Eloise !) never ache as thou hast unwittingly 

 caused mine to do, with disappointed love ! 

 Eloise has a sister younger than herself, 

 and her perfect contrast. Isabelle is a 

 ' dark ladye,' but how gloriously dark ! 

 Such a profusion of ebon braids ! Such lus- 

 trous, magnificent eyes, shaded by the most 

 richly-fringed curtains to be obtained of 

 love's upholsterer, and — 



"Her smile kindles with a conscious glow, 

 As from the thought of sovereign beauty born." 



And Isabelle is conscious of 'sovereign 

 beauty ' — and means too, to do all the ex- 

 ecution she can with it. How many captives 

 grace her triumph whenever she appears in 

 ■ halls of light ! ' Admiration which her sis- 

 ter would not see, she sees, and makes the 

 world see it too — though her heart remains 

 as unyielding as that of Eloise. But don't 

 imagine that Isabelle is an unfeeling coquette 

 — far from it, her ' coquetry,' as her envious 

 frie?ids term it — never wounds, never degrades 

 her in the eyes of her discarded suitors ; on 

 the contrary, she is much more popular than 

 her more delicately-honorable sister, ' the 

 proud Eloise ' — whose mercy is termed l cold- 

 ness ' and ' cruelty.' 



Isabelle, moreover, is frank and generous, 

 devotedly attached to her family, and although 

 generally most luxuriously indolent, she will 

 exert herself till exhausted to serve her 

 friends, especially her sister. She possesses 

 a strong mind and quick perceptions, but has 

 not her sister's studious tastes. She always 

 had a strange habit of looking over instead 

 of on her book when at her ' studies.' 

 ' What was the use of her studying — spoil- 

 ing her eyes and her temper — when, if she 

 wanted information on any subject, she 

 had only to ask Eloise, who studied enough 

 for both ? ' 



And Isabelle loould not be persuaded that 

 her 'reasoning' was nonsense — at " least 

 until schooldays were over — and now she 

 congratulates herself that she will never be 

 mistaken for ' that scarecrow, a blue-stock- 

 ing ; ' and indeed I am, sometimes, when 

 looking at her brilliant face, inclined to agree 

 with some of her mustachioed adorers, who 

 tell her that— 



'" The lip that's so scented by roses, 

 Must never dare smell of the lamp." 



But will Isabelle, so charming a mistress, 

 make an equally agreeable wife? I have 

 sometimes had fears on that head; but I 

 know that when Isabelle loves, she will love 

 devotedly, and where her affections are con- 

 cerned, her will is ever pliant. Whoever 

 wins Isabelle, will mould her to his fancy ; 

 for her heart and hand will be given together. 



" Any Excuse Better than None!" — Com- 

 plaint against fortune, is often a masked apology 

 for indolence. 



THINGS IN GENERAL. 



"De omnibus rebus, et qiribusdam aliis.' , 



Elegant Compliment. — When Fontenelle 

 was ninety-seven years of age, he happened to be 

 in company with the then young and beautiful 

 Madame Helvetius, who had been married but 

 a few weeks. Fontenelle was always a great 

 admirer of beauty, and he had been paying the 

 bride many compliments, as refined as they were 

 gallant. When the guests were sitting down to 

 table, however, he passed her, and sat himself 

 down without perceiving her. " See, now," 

 said Madame Helvetius, " what dependance is to 

 be put in all your fine speeches; you pass on before, 

 without looking at me ! " " Madame," said the 

 gallant old man, " if I had stopped to look at 

 you, 1 could never have passed on .'" 



The Fox and the Leopard. — A fox sat, in 

 deep thought, at the entrance of his den. 

 "What are you thinking about now?" asked 

 his helpmate. 



"I will tell you: The leopard went by just 

 now, and spoke to me so polite — spoke first, too." 



" What the plague does it all mean ? " 



"Why, you silly creature, what should it 

 mean ? You can't know much about leopards, 

 wife, if you fancy they are so polite for 

 nothing! " 



There is a moral here, too obvious to require 

 any comment from us. 



Advice to Persons about to eat "Heal" 

 Epping Sausages, 'eondly' imagining them 



TO BE MADE OP " PORK." — Don't! 



Eeeectsop "Caloric" in America. — The 

 Albany Knickerbocker, of August, says: — "The 

 weather has been ' all hot.' We saw a woman 

 do her ironing with no other fuel than the sun- 

 shine. When we came away, she hung her 

 kettle out of the window, to get tea ready." — We 

 have since heard that, although it held four 

 gallons of water, it boiled in less than four 

 seconds. This is what the musicians call 

 " quick time." 



Times Past and Times Present. — The Edi- 

 tor of the Leicester Mercury has inserted a 

 funny paragraph in his last paper. Kecurring 

 to his juvenile days, he says: — "Nothing was 

 so mnch dreaded in our schoolboy days, as to 

 be 'punished' by sitting between two girls. Ah! 

 the force of education! In after-years, we 

 learned to submit to such things, without shed- 

 ding a tear." No doubt, this has been the 

 " force of habit." " Use is second nature" — if the 

 proverb hold true. 



" COMFORTABLE ! " 



England alone, of all nations in the 

 world, knows the true meaning of the word 

 " Comfortable." 



The French have no word in their lan- 

 guage corresponding with our " Comfort- 

 able." The reason is plain, — they have 

 nothing comfortable in their habits, and do 

 not require a word to express that of which 

 they are ignorant, A savage is no more in 



