Various

“ Don’t ask me any more questions,” he said impatiently, as Ada, trembling with fear, held on to his coat-sleeve to detain him. “Women like your mother are no use at all at a crisis,” he continued. “The one moment of her married life when I wished for her help she has failed me. You are so like her you would do the same, I suppose.” Mr. Nicoli saw the carnation colour fade out of Ada’s lips and cheeks, but her blue eyes never shrank from his piercing scrutiny of her face. ”

“ And so the pretty doll-child grew up into womanhood, conscious only of the rich luxurious world in which she was sheltered by her foolishly-indulgent mother. If you looked into Ada’s rose-tinted face there was no expression there to indicate the girl’s true character. Ada Nicoli’s soul lay dormant. At the age of eighteen she was merely a pretty human machine that seldom went wrong, for she had excellent health and a sweet temper.
On the afternoon when my story opens, Ada had been driving as usual with her mother in Central Park. ”

“ It puzzles the doctors and makes us all uneasy.”
May was sincerely grieved. She liked Oscar; she was truly fond of Sheila; and she had come to identify herself, in a fashion, with the household in River Street. She heard of their work, and saw it with her own eyes. The admiration she had always felt for North was increasing daily.
But Oscar?
Sheila scarcely left him now except when the nurse drove her away to take the needful rest, whether she could sleep or not. It seemed to her as though her whole life had been passed in watching that dear, wasted face. ”

“ Travelling thus day by day, seldom meeting any human being, except an occasional shepherd or country woman, we had ample time for reflection, and it was easy enough to give the reins to one’s imagination, and ride with Joshua’s army through these silent vales, or watch the impetuous rush of the warriors up those bleak rocky hills, as with all the confidence of victory they stormed the cities which once stood there. ”

“ It was her own fear.
“People do sometimes, though nobody knows why,” Tom said. And he went and took a nervous peep into the cellar and scullery, which revealed nothing worse than the general air of desertion which hung over all the premises.
Of course, such a development could not be long concealed from the mistress of the house. As soon as Lucy had drunk a cup of tea and a faint shade of colour had come into her face, they told her that Clementina was nowhere to be found. Lucy was not flurried nor worried as she would have been a few weeks before. ”

“ Sadie said softly. Meanwhile Ada was throwing a watery little smile on some friend who was eagerly bowing to her, a partner at some dance a few nights ago. Responding to a bow first on this side, and then on that, a good many of the mothers in New York who knew Mrs. Nicoli thought she had brought up her daughter in a very foolish way, but one and all of them agreed that it was evident that the girl’s natural disposition was too simple and good to spoil. She had such gentle, engaging manners, and such sweet blue eyes, no one could help loving her. ”

“ We know too many teachers who break down under the strain in middle life to advise any girl to persevere who has already found the profession so trying as you have done. If you attempt laundry-work, you might take a year’s training at some large steam-laundry (such as the London and Provincial Steam-Laundry, Battersea Park Road, S.W.) , and afterwards try to start a hand-laundry, or to join someone in such an enterprise. But we fear the regular business of a steam-laundry would prove fully as trying to you as teaching. ”

“ You must remember that madness seldom attacks the whole of the brain at once. Generally it leaves part in perfect working order for awhile, so that those in ignorance of the peculiar groove taken by the disease might long remain unwitting of it. Generally, of course, the malady slowly increases its conquest, though its progress may be very slow, and maybe occasionally arrested at special stages. It is quite probable that Clementina may not remember all she has done, and also that she may believe her actions to have been quite intelligible and praiseworthy. ”

“ Ewing produced the three works most widely popular—Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin’s Dovecot, and The Story of a Short Life. These constitute an imperishable memorial to her genius, and have sold in enormous numbers, reaching to one hundred and fifty thousand in the case of Jackanapes. In these books every sentence is carefully chosen; no superfluous word is to be found; we get pen pictures of rarest excellence.
In Jackanapes we have the high ideal of soldierly self-sacrifice, and in The Story of a Short Life the application of military habits and endurance to a crippled and stunted life. ”

“ Beauty has been from of old a theme of poets, and the poets of this country, from Chaucer to Browning, have made beautiful girls their theme. Chaucer has good and bad to tell of them. The good may be read in many a tale, and the bad will be best left unread. Browning has good and bad to tell of them. There is good told of “beautiful Evelyn Hope—sixteen years old when she died,” and there is bad told of “the beautiful girl, too white, who lived at Pornic by the sea,” the girl who hoarded gold. ”

“ It is very annoying to lose a business appointment on account of a train being late. Gerald has my sympathy, but I can offer him no consolation, it being a generally established rule that damages cannot be obtained for the loss of a business engagement, nor can damages be obtained for the annoyance experienced by the traveller.
You see the railway companies say that “every attention will be paid to ensure punctuality,” and to recover damages you would have to prove that the lateness of the train was due to their neglect to pay the “every attention” promised, a difficult thing to do. ”

“ Ewing wrote no book of great length, the number and variety of her output are considerable. Her stories range from fairy tales with a purpose to books of adventure and domestic incident of all kinds. We get such sketches as The Brownies, where two little lads act on the happy suggestion to serve as elfish helpers of their widowed and burdened father, and set to work to brighten the house, not without soon learning that “there is no such cure for untidiness as clearing up after other people; one sees so clearly where the fault lies.” ”

“ In these days it is almost always best to specialise, that is to say, to become peculiarly efficient in some one department of work. Now, if you could make yourself a thoroughly capable clerk, and could master as much about the coal trade, in which you are engaged, as it is in your power to learn, you would have the preference over an inexperienced girl for any better post in a coal order office later. Work hard at book-keeping and type-writing, and attend any good business classes that may be held in your neighbourhood.
Olive (Laundry-Work, etc.) ”

“ The great failings of nearly all capable laundry manageresses are drink and a low standard of morals, especially as regards honesty; and if a woman of superiority went in for the work, she would never lack a good berth, as all the hard work in laundries is now done by men.” We quote what you tell us with the more satisfaction in view of the statement sometimes made by ill-informed persons that girls are likely to be ousted by men from the laundry trade. The demand for expert and honest laundresses and manageresses was manifestly never greater than it is at present. ”

“ On the 4th of April we left Jerusalem for Hebron, travelling in an ancient vehicle driven by a merry bright-eyed youth, who at intervals would put his head under the hood of the carriage, and inquire, “Are you happy, O ladies?” On this journey we dispensed with the services of our dragoman, Miss B. kindly undertaking for us the distracting business of payments and bargaining, for the coinage of Palestine is as perplexing as its language.
You can never be sure of the value of Turkish money in this country. Every village, though circulating the same coins, puts a different value on them ”

“ Nicoli that her child was thus deprived of the most valuable possession a woman can have, a highly-cultivated mind, for Ada was a bright intelligent girl, but her mother could not bear the sorrow of parting with her by sending her to a boarding-school, and her lessons at the day-school where she attended were so constantly interrupted by Mrs. Nicoli’s calling to take her daughter out with her in her carriage that the exasperated mistress soon learned that Ada’s education was a matter of little account in her parent’s eyes, and treated her accordingly. ”

“ At Somerset House, Aunt Anne will find all sorts of people reading not only the wills of their friends and relatives, but also wills under which they can take no pecuniary interest, such as the wills of public men in no way related to them; anyone can read anybody’s will on payment of the usual fee. To make a copy of a will for oneself is not permitted, but you may take a short note of its contents. ”

“ Cyril spoke with the ease and assurance of a favoured son. He was the only one who ever spoke to his father by that familiar title. Mr. Tom did not take his eyes from the fire.
“You have your own allowance, and we have only reached half quarter yet. You must have plenty in hand.”
Cyril coloured and then tried to laugh easily.
“What keeps one at home scarcely goes as far in London.”
“That allowance was fixed when you went to Oxford and has never been changed. Many a man has less on which to bring up a family. It should stand the strain of a few weeks in town.” ”

“ I suppose we shall have to live on aerated dainties or go to a boarding-house. Oh dear, oh dear! just as we were so happy,” and Jane’s usually cheerful face got very woe-begone and lugubrious.
Ada seemed to take the matter more calmly. She had been looking very handsome of late and seemed wonderfully contented with things in general. As she wrote to Marion when congratulating her on her approaching marriage, “it is delightful to be amongst one’s friends new and old.” ”

“ Ewing is the premier story-teller for children of this generation. No library for young people can be considered complete without most of her books. A few of her writings may appeal more fully to older readers; but the majority afford immense delight when placed in the hands of boys and girls. ”

“ Uvula.—We discussed the causes of bad breath at some length a short while ago. Your trouble is doubtless due to the double cause of bad teeth and an unhealthy condition of the nose. As you are going to do the right thing and have your teeth seen to, we need not say much about this. But as regards your nose, you have a condition which is unfortunately exceedingly common among young women. It is a most difficult disease to eradicate, but with care can be kept in check, and the offensive smell altogether banished. ”

“ Now there are more unbeautiful young faces that hold out a promise than there are beautiful young faces that do this, just as there are more unbeautiful older faces that tell a story than there are beautiful older faces that do this. ”

“ Hebron is a Moslem city containing about{778} 18,000 inhabitants. About 600 Jews dwell in the lower end of the town. Fierce and wild, it is their boast that no Pagan Frank has built his house within their walls nor desecrated their holy shrine with his presence. Whether this bigotry will give place to tolerance under the softening influences exercised by the medical missionaries has yet to be proved. We were told that the people were becoming gradually gentler. To us they seemed fanatical and dangerous. There is no hotel in Hebron for travellers. ”

“ In like manner, the regularity of line that is a main part of beauty is often attended by defects in another direction, calculated to arouse comment such as the following, being a speech made in reference to a woman of great beauty—
“Her profile is delicious, but her full face is an empty face.”
The woman in question lacked somewhat in intellectuality. A beautiful woman—so fairly on the whole are gifts distributed—is rarely a clever woman, and a beautiful girl is often a goose. ”

“ In this same sketch we get an insight into the courage of Madam Liberality, “like little body with a mighty heart.” Often tortured by headache, toothache, and quinsy, “no sufferings abated her energy for fresh exploits or quenched the hope that cold and damp and fatigue could not hurt her ‘this time.’” Of Mrs. Ewing it is stated that “she was always coughing” as a girl, but her weakness never seemed to affect her vivacity. ”

“ If cooked quickly all the while, the heart will be hard. When done put on a hot dish; pour off the dripping and pour half a pint of{783} stock into the tin; add an ounce of brown thickening and a dessertspoonful of ketchup and boil up. Pour this gravy round the heart.
Chocolate Sauce for Pancakes.—Make some pancakes in the usual way, and before each one is rolled up, spread a spoonful of the following sauce on each:—
Put two ounces of chocolate on a tin in the oven to get soft, and then stir it into half a pint of warm milk. The chocolate used must be of the best quality; beat until smooth. ”

“ Unless you have friends in Paris with whom you could stay, we should not advise you to try to enter a dressmaking firm in that city. It is possible that the Secretary of the Foreign Registry, Girls’ Friendly Society, 10, Holbein Place, Sloane Square, S.W., could advise you in the matter; but probably the best firms might have no vacancy for an English girl, and the less good might prove to be extremely undesirable. It would be far wiser, in our opinion, to apprentice yourself to a London firm, concerning which your relations and friends could make the requisite inquiries.—2. ”

“ Of course, when Oscar recovers, the whole truth must be told. Meantime it will rest between you and me; and we will see if there is not still something behind that lazy, self-seeking exterior. I fear we have spoiled Cyril, and that this is the outcome. But some men will rise to an emergency, who otherwise drift along with the current all too easily. ”