A Few Short Sketches

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A Few Short Sketches

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Title: A Few Short Sketches
Author: Douglass Sherley
Release Date: February 1, 2005 [EBook #14855]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FEW
SHORT SKETCHES ***

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[Transcriber's Note: unusual spellings have been retained as in the
original.]

A Few Short Sketches By Douglass Sherley
Printed by John P. Morton & Co. Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A.
MDCCCXCIII

COPYRIGHTED BY DOUGLASS SHERLEY, 1892

THOSE RUSSIAN VIOLETS
TO LADY VIOLET

I
THOSE RUSSIAN VIOLETS
There had been a brilliant reception at the house of Mrs. Adrian
Colburn in honor of her guest--a most attractive young woman--from
the East. The hours were brief, from five to seven. I had gone late and
left early, but while there had made an engagement with Miss
Caddington for the large ball to be given that night by the Boltons.
Miss Caddington was a debutante. She had been educated abroad, but
had not lost either love of country or naturalness of manner. During the
short but fiercely gay season from October to Christmas she had made
many friends, and found that two or three lovers were hard to handle
with much credit to herself or any real happiness to them.
She was not painfully conscientious, nor was she an intentional trifler;
therefore she was good at that social game of lead on and hold off.
"Call at nine," she said, "and I will be ready."

But she was not ready at nine. The room where I waited was most
inviting. There were several low couches laden with slumber-robes and
soft, downy pillows, all at sweet enmity with insomnia. The ornaments
were few but pleasing to the eye. Art and her hand-maiden, Good Taste,
had decorated the walls. But there was a table, best of all, covered with
good books, and before it, drawn in place, an easy-chair. An exquisite
china lamp, with yellow shade, shed all the light that was needed.
Everywhere there were feminine signs--touches that were delightful
and unmistakable.
From somewhere there came a rich oriental odor. It intoxicated me with
its subtle perfume. I picked up "After-Dinner Stories" (Balzac), then a
translation from Alfred de Musset, an old novel by Wilkie Collins,
"The Guilty River;" but still that mysterious perfume pervaded my
senses and unfitted me for the otherwise tempting feast spread before
me. I looked at the clock; it was nine thirty. I turned again to the table,
and carelessly reached out for a pair of dainty, pale tan-colored gloves.
Then I seized them eagerly and brushed them against my face; I had
found the odor. The gloves were perfumed. They had been worn for the
first time to the reception, and had been thrown there into a plate of
costly percelain, to await her ladyship's pleasure and do further and
final service at the ball. They bore the imprint of her dainty fingers, and
they were hardly cold from the touch and the warmth of her pretty
white hands. They seemed, as they rested there, like something human;
and if they had reached out toward me, or even spoken a word of
explanation regarding their highly perfumed selves, I should indeed
have been delighted, but neither surprised nor dismayed.
But while the gloves did not speak, did not move, something else made
mute appeal. Tossed into that same beautiful plate, hidden at first by
the gloves, was a bunch, a very small bunch of Russian violets.
Evidently they had been worn to the reception, and while I was
wondering if she would wear them to the ball I heard a light step, the
rustle of silken skirts, and I knew that my wait was ended.
She looked resplendent in evening dress, and swept toward me with the
grace, the charm, the ease of a woman of many seasons instead of one

hardly half finished.
"Here are your gloves," I said. She quickly drew them on and made
them fast with almost a single movement.
"And your Russian violets," I added. She looked at them hesitatingly,
but slightly shrugged her shoulders, that were bare and gleamed in the
half glow of lamp and fire like moonlight on silvered meadow, and,
turning, looked up at me and said:
"I am ready at last; pray pardon my long delay."