Kenelm Chillingly | Page 5

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!"
The Baby enters in the nurse's arms. All rise and gather round the Baby
with one exception,--Mr. Gordon, who has ceased to be heir-at-law.
The Baby returned the gaze of its relations with the most contemptuous
indifference. Miss Sibyl was the first to pronounce an opinion on the
Baby's attributes. Said she, in a solemn whisper, "What a heavenly
mournful expression! it seems so grieved to have left the angels!"
THE REV. JOHN.--"That is prettily said, Cousin Sibyl; but the infant
must pluck up its courage and fight its way among mortals with a good
heart, if it wants to get back to the angels again. And I think it will; a
fine child." He took it from the nurse, and moving it deliberately up and
down, as if to weigh it, said cheerfully, "Monstrous heavy! by the time
it is twenty it will be a match for a prize-fighter of fifteen stone!"
Therewith he strode to Gordon, who as if to show that he now
considered himself wholly apart from all interest in the affairs of a
family who had so ill-treated him in the birth of that Baby, had taken
up the "Times" newspaper and concealed his countenance beneath the
ample sheet. The Parson abruptly snatched away the "Times" with one
hand, and, with the other substituting to the indignant eyes of the
/ci-devant/ heir-at-law the spectacle of the Baby, said, "Kiss it."
"Kiss it!" echoed Chillingly Gordon, pushing back his chair--"kiss it!
pooh, sir, stand off! I never kissed my own baby: I shall not kiss

another man's. Take the thing away, sir: it is ugly; it has black eyes."
Sir Peter, who was near-sighted, put on his spectacles and examined the
face of the new-born. "True," said he, "it has black eyes,--very
extraordinary: portentous: the first Chillingly that ever had black eyes."
"Its mamma has black eyes," said Miss Margaret: "it takes after its
mamma; it has not the fair beauty of the Chillinglys, but it is not ugly."
"Sweet infant!" sighed Sibyl; "and so good; does not cry."
"It has neither cried nor crowed since it was born," said the nurse;
"bless its little heart."
She took the Baby from the Parson's arms, and smoothed back the frill
of its cap,