The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lost Dahlia, by Mary Russell Mitford

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Title: The Lost Dahlia

Author: Mary Russell Mitford

Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22837]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by David Widger

THE LOST DAHLIA.

By Mary Russell Mitford

If to have "had losses" be, as affirmed by Dogberry in one of
Shakspeare's most charming plays, and corroborated by Sir Walter Scott
in one of his most charming romances--(those two names do well in
juxtaposition, the great Englishman! the great Scotsman!)--If to have
"had losses" be a main proof of credit and respectability, then am I
one of the most responsible persons in the whole county of Berks. To say
nothing of the graver matters which figure in a banker's book, and make,
in these days of pounds, shillings, and pence, so large a part of
the domestic tragedy of life--putting wholly aside all the grander
transitions of property in house and land, of money on mortgage, and
money in the funds--(and yet I might put in my claim to no trifling
amount of ill luck in that way also, if I had a mind to try my hand at
a dismal story)--counting for nought all weightier grievances, there is
not a lady within twenty miles who can produce so large a list of small
losses as my unfortunate self.

From the day when, a tiny damsel of some four years old, I first had a
pocket-handkerchief to lose, down to this very night--I will not say how
many years after--when, as I have just discovered, I have most certainly
lost from my pocket the new cambric kerchief which I deposited therein a
little before dinner, scarcely a week has passed without some part of
my goods and chattels being returned missing. Gloves, muffs, parasols,
reticules, have each of them a provoking knack of falling from my
hands; boas glide from my neck, rings slip from my fingers, the bow has
vanished from my cap, the veil from my bonnet, the sandal from my foot,
the brooch from my collar, and the collar from my brooch. The trinket
which I liked best, a jewelled pin, the first gift of a dear friend,
(luckily the friendship is not necessarily a