Lady Piercey

“ There is more wit in it than goes to ten new plays. Thence with my wife and Knipp to Mrs. Pierce's, and saw her closet again, and liked her picture. Thence took them all to the Cake-house, in Southampton Market-place, where Pierce told us the story how, in good earnest, [the King] is offended with the Duke of Richmond's marrying, and Mrs. Stewart's sending the King his jewels again. As she tells it, it is the noblest romance and example of a brave lady that ever I read in my life. Pretty to hear them talk of yesterday's play, and I durst not own to my wife to have seen it. ”

“ A young woman, with grace, with charm, with—what shall I say?—an air such as your English girls do not know how to possess, and everyone shall say, ‘How she is accomplished, that Pixie! How she is clever and chic!’”
The tears had risen in Bridgie’s eyes, but now she was obliged to laugh at the same time, for it was so droll to think of Pixie as a young lady “with an air!” She laid her hand on Mademoiselle’s arm, with one of her pretty caressing gestures.
“You are a dear, kind Thérèse, and it all sounds too charming, but I am afraid it cannot be done. ”

“ Lady Holme is an egoist—a magnificent, an adorable egoist, fine enough in her brilliant selfishness to stand quite alone.”
“And you mean to tell us that any woman can do that?” exclaimed Pierce.
“Who am I that I should pronounce a verdict upon the great mystery? What do I know of women?”
“Far too much, I’m afraid,” said Pierce.
“Nothing, I have never been married, and only the married man knows anything of women. The Frenchmen are wrong. It is not the mistress who informs, it is the loving wife. For me the sex remains mysterious, like the heroine of my realm of dreams.” ”

“ Geoffrey watched her from the doorway, saw her squeeze herself into the corner of the lounge on which the Duchess was seated, and gaze into her face with the broadest of broad beaming smiles, while the great lady, in her turn, put up a lorgnon and stared back in amazed curiosity.
“Well, little girl,” said the Duchess, smiling, “and what have you got to say?”
“Plenty, thank you! I always have. Me difficulty is to find someone to listen!” replied Miss Pixie, with a confidential nod. ”

“ Pixie to the rescue!” cried Geoffrey to himself, and promptly stole across to the room set apart for refreshments, where his small sister-in-law sat eating her fourth ice, waited upon with assiduous care by her friend Montgomery.
“Pixie,” he said, “there’s an old lady in black sitting under the big palm in the yellow drawing-room and looking dreadfully bored! Just go and talk to her like a good girl, and see if you can amuse her a little bit before she goes.”
“I will so!” responded Pixie heartily. “It’s a very dull party when there’s nothing to do but be pleasant. ”

“ Sat all the morning, and at noon home to dinner with my wife alone, and after dinner sat by the fire, and then up to make up my accounts with her, and find that my ordinary housekeeping comes to L7 a month, which is a great deal. By and by comes Dr. Pierce, who among other things tells me that my Lady Castlemaine's interest at Court increases, and is more and greater than the Queen's; that she hath brought in Sir H. Bennet, and Sir Charles Barkeley; but that the queen is a most good lady, and takes all with the greatest meekness that may be. ”

“ I know you wise, but yet no farther wise
Than Harry Percy’s wife; constant you are,
But yet a woman; and for secrecy,
No lady closer, for I well believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know;
And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate. ”

“ And then the beauty of that speech, with its fine appeals to the best sympathies of our common nature! I am proud of him. What a sad, sad catastrophe was that of young Pierce! I won't call his father general, and I hope he will leave it off. With us it is a real offence to give any man a higher rank than belongs to him,—to say captain, for instance, to a lieutenant,—and that is one of our usages which it would be well to copy. But we have follies enough, God knows; that duchess address, with all its tuft-hunting signatures, is a thing to make Englishwomen ashamed. ”

“ Pierce, who tells me that the Queen is in a way to be pretty well again, but that her delirium in her head continues still; that she talks idle, not by fits, but always, which in some lasts a week after so high a fever, in some more, and in some for ever; that this morning she talked mightily that she was brought to bed, and that she wondered that she should be delivered without pain and without spueing or being sicke, and that she was troubled that her boy was but an ugly boy. ”

“ It seemed to Anne as if Mrs. Pierce’s face grew very grave, and she wondered to herself if Aunt Anne Rose would really like to have her live with them.
[Pg 202] “Your cheeks are just as red, and your eyes shine; you look just like a girl, Aunt Anne Rose,” she said admiringly, as Mrs. Pierce took off her hat and brushed her pretty black hair, that waved back from her face.
“It’s because I’m on a visit,” declared Mrs. Pierce, “and a visit to Boston. I’ve always wanted to come, and here I am! Everybody looks young and pretty when she is happy, Anne. But I’m not young. ”

“ Pierce!" very coldly.
"Ha! You know me, too! You knew that this man—"
"Most people in this city know you—by sight," she interrupted, in a tone that somehow made Pierce wince. Then she tucked the envelope under her arm, where the folds of the lace scarf she wore concealed it, and led the way with dignity to the house. ”

“ Lady Rachel Russell says: “My sister urges that her only child should not be disposed of without her consent, and in my judgment it is hard, yet I fancy I am not partial.” The old lady was triumphant, however, and contrived to get the young heiress into her power, or rather to assert her power over her fortunes, and Elizabeth Percy had the strange fate of being three times a wife, and twice a widow ere she was sixteen. [71] She married, when only thirteen, Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, who immediately assumed the name and arms of Percy; but he died a few months after his marriage, in 1680. ”

“ Know you the place?”
“Yes, my lady; but why, why?——” began Francis, but the lady interrupted her.
“Fie, fie, naughty boy! art thou so curious? Ask no more until to-night.” With a quizzical look she went on her way leaving the girl staring after her.
“What said the Lady Priscilla to thee?” demanded Edward Devereaux drawing near. 173 “Beware of her, Francis Stafford. She is full of wiles and deceit. ’Tis unseemly to speak ill of a woman, but I would fain warn thee. When Mistress Priscilla is most gracious she is bent on mischief. Therefore do I bid thee to beware of her.” ”

“ At Pierce's words, Bryce sharpened his eyes on the face across the table. There was a touch of seriousness in those words; more like a statement than a suggestion.
Pierce smiled wryly and took a vial out of his pocket and poured it into his drink. He spun the empty bottle between thumb and fingers.
“We owe ourselves some fun,” Pierce repeated. “We've nothing on the fire tonight, nothing to do that's crucial. It's a good night to experiment.” ”

“ Madame Pierson gave evidence of more confidence in me, confessing that she loved me when she had never shown it in her actions. The respect I felt for her inspired me with such joy that her face looked to me like a blossomed flower. At times, she would abandon herself to an impulse of sudden gaiety and then suddenly check herself, treating me like a child, and then looking at me with eyes filled with tears; indulging in a thousand pleasantries, as a pretext for a more familiar word or caress, then quitting me to go aside and abandon herself to reverie. Is there a more beautiful sight? ”

“ Pierce, she being somewhat old and handsome, and painted and fine, and had a very handsome maid with her, which we take to be the marks of a bawd. But Mrs. Pierce says she is a stranger to her and met by chance in the coach, and pretends to be a dresser. Her name is Eastwood. So to sleep in a bad bed about one o'clock in the morning. This afternoon after dinner comes Mr. Stephenson, one of the burgesses of the town, to tell me that the Mayor and burgesses did desire my acceptance of a burgess-ship, and were ready at the Mayor's to make me one. ”

“ Pierce was no fool; even his limited experience in the North had taught him a good deal about the character of dance-hall women and of the men who handled them; he was in no wise deceived, therefore, by the respectability with which the word "theatrical" cloaked this troupe of wanderers; it gave him a feeling of extreme self-consciousness to find himself associated with such folk; he felt decidedly out of place.
What would his people think? And the Countess Courteau? Well, it would teach her that a man's heart was not a football; that a man's love was not to be juggled with. ”

“ Pierce's on 6 Dec. 1665, and thought her ‘pretty enough, but the most excellent, mad-humoured thing, and sings the noblest that ever I heard in my life.’ Her husband he describes as ‘an ill, melancholy, jealous-looking fellow,’ suspected of ill-treating her. ”

“ I don’t think that I had ever seen a more beautiful woman in my life. Tall, with a splendid figure and perfect carriage, she vaguely reminded me of the portraits one sees of the late Empress of Austria. This lady was, moreover, dressed to perfection, and wore a large hat adorned with a quantity of plumes.
The chief had instinctively risen to greet her, whilst Lady Molly, still and placid, was eyeing her with a quizzical smile. ”

“ After due apology to the parents, the teacher made the dialogue the chief feature of the "last day of school." Curiously enough, in spite of that early suggestion of future possibilities, the bugbear of Elizabeth's boarding-school days was composition-writing. In 1869 she became the wife of Rev. George Ross Pierce, a man of much culture and refinement. About 1876, over her maiden name, she began to write stories for children, which appeared in "Wide-Awake," the "Independent" and "St. ”

“ The quick deep rumble of sound came and faded in the walls around them. A fleeting smile touched the face, and the dark eyes rested on his for a moment as Roy Pierce gave the information casually as if it were any other information, answering the question that had been meant. “It is my mother's name. We always take our mother's names. ”

“ Dear Mrs Evans, do you think it is a suitable engagement?”
“Dear Mrs Beverley, how can I judge? Can anyone in the world decide whom a man or a woman will choose?”
“They can’t, but they can guess pretty well whom they won’t! You know them both, Captain Peignton and Miss Mallison; can you imagine them living together, and being satisfied all their lives?” ”

“ As a result of their frequent conferences a frank, free intimacy had sprung up between Pierce and his employer, an intimacy both gratifying and disappointing to him. Just how it affected the woman he could not tell. As a matter of fact he made little effort to learn, being for the moment too deeply concerned in the great change that had come over him.
Pierce Phillips made no effort to deceive himself: he was in love, yes, desperately in love, and his infatuation grew with every hour. It was his first serious affair and quite naturally its newness took his breath. ”

“ Pierce to undertake the carrying in my wife, I to Unthanke's, where she appointed to be, and there told her, and back again about business to White Hall, while Pierce went and fetched her and carried her in. I, after I had met with Sir W. Coventry and given him some account of matters, I also to the ball, and with much ado got up to the loft, where with much trouble I could see very well. Anon the house grew full, and the candles light, and the King and Queen and all the ladies set: and it was, indeed, a glorious sight to see Mrs. ”

“ If you feel temper coming on, have it out on me! I’m used to you from a child, and if I get too much of it I can always run away and leave you; Geoffrey can’t. It’s mean to take advantage of a man that’s bound.”
“If he wanted to go,” began Joan haughtily, then subsided into tears and helplessness. “Pixie! Pixie! It’s so difficult! What can I do?”
“D’you need me to tell you? Isn’t it the easiest thing in the world to make love to your own husband, in your own house? Talk of propinquity! Always ready, always handy, if you can’t manage that! My dear girl, the game’s in your own hands.” ”

“ The only reason he decided to go off on this trip was that I had a heart-to-heart talk with him and told him that he need not have any fear of me, that I was—was—but never mind what I told him. Anyhow, he is not afraid I'll make a meal of his beloved Pierce."
"How about Pierce?" asked Molly. "Is he, too, relieved at his assured safety?"
"That kid!" sniffed Judy. "He is not in the least in love with anything but his art. I fancy it would bore him to death if he thought Uncle Tom and I had had that talk. He likes me just as he would another boy." ”

“ Life is never a small possession to him that owns it. I have friends with me to-night who will feel it to be more than an honor to welcome you. M. Michel and M. Pierce, you said, I think. This is a most fortunate hour."
I said all the effusively pleasant things I could think of, while his servant relieved me of my overcoat. As Pierce was being aided in like manner I had a good look at my host, and made up my mind that he was probably dressed for a fancy ball. He was clearly a quite old man, curiously slight in person, and having almost the delicacy of features of a woman. ”