Kenelm Chillingly — Complete eBook

Miss Sibyl was of milder nature and more melancholy temperament; she had a poetic turn of mind, and occasionally wrote verses.  Some of these had been printed on satin paper, and sold for objects of beneficence at charity bazaars.  The county newspapers said that the verses “were characterized by all the elegance of a cultured and feminine mind.”  The other two sisters agreed that Sibyl was the genius of the household, but, like all geniuses, not sufficiently practical for the world.  Miss Sarah Chillingly, the youngest of the three, and now just in her forty-fourth year, was looked upon by the others as “a dear thing, inclined to be naughty, but such a darling that nobody could have the heart to scold her.”  Miss Margaret said “she was a giddy creature.”  Miss Sibyl wrote a poem on her, entitled, “Warning to a young Lady against the Pleasures of the World.”  They all called her Sally; the other two sisters had no diminutive synonyms.  Sally is a name indicative of fastness.  But this Sally would not have been thought fast in another household, and she was now little likely to sally out of the one she belonged to.  These sisters, who were all many years older than Sir Peter, lived in a handsome, old-fashioned, red-brick house, with a large garden at the back, in the principal street of the capital of their native county.  They had each L10,000 for portion; and if he could have married all three, the heir-at-law would have married them, and settled the aggregate L30,000 on himself.  But we have not yet come to recognize Mormonism as legal, though if our social progress continues to slide in the same grooves as at present, Heaven only knows what triumphs over the prejudices of our ancestors may not be achieved by the wisdom of our descendants!

CHAPTER III.

Sir Peter stood on his hearthstone, surveyed the guests seated in semicircle, and said:  “Friends,—­in Parliament, before anything affecting the fate of a Bill is discussed, it is, I believe, necessary to introduce the Bill.”  He paused a moment, rang the bell, and said to the servant who entered, “Tell Nurse to bring in the Baby.”

Mr. Chillingly Gordon.—­“I don’t see the necessity for that, Sir Peter.  We may take the existence of the Baby for granted.”

Mr. Mivers.—­“It is an advantage to the reputation of Sir Peter’s work to preserve the incognito. Omne ignotum pro magnifico.”

The Rev.  John Stalworth chillingly.—­“I don’t approve the cynical levity of such remarks.  Of course we must all be anxious to see, in the earliest stage of being, the future representative of our name and race.  Who would not wish to contemplate the source, however small, of the Tigris or the Nile!—­”

Miss sally (tittering).—­“He! he!”

Miss Margaret.—­“For shame, you giddy thing!”