Each lady showered smiles over the
footlights at her avowed admirers, whilst contemptuously ignoring
those who sported her rival's colours. One silly youth, to testify
to his admiration for Emily Duncan, actually had white kid gloves
with black fingers, specially manufactured for him. He was, we
hope, repaid for his outlay by extra smiles from his enchantress.
Traces of the witty early nineteenth century still lingered into
the "seventies," "eighties," and "nineties." Lady Constance
Leslie, who is still living, and the late Lady Cork were almost
the last descendants of the brilliant wits of Sydney Smith and
Theodore Hook's days. The hurry of modern life, and the tendency
of the age to scratch the surface of things only, are not
favourable to the development of this type of keen intellect,
which was based on a thorough knowledge of the English classics,
and on such a high level of culture as modern trouble-hating women
could but seldom hope to attain. Time and time again I have asked
Lady Cork for the origin of some quotation. She invariably gave it
me at once, usually quoting some lines of the context at the same
time.
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