Madame D’Hernilly was accustomed to pass, every year, several of the
summer months in the country: a particular circumstance obliged her to
go there sooner than usual, and her husband, who was one of the chief
magistrates in the capital, was not able to accompany her. Her only
companions were her two daughters, both young girls. There was very
little society to be met with in that part of the country where Madame
D’Hernilly’s castle was situated: the nearest town, which was at a
distance of two or three leagues, was a small place, with but few
genteel inhabitants; and, even were it otherwise, she would not have
been tempted to mix with her neighbours. Solitude was her choice and
her device, till the time of the vacation: at that period she expected
to be joined by her husband and her only son. The visits she received
in the mean time were confined to those of two ladies in the
neighbourhood, and their daughters, and these were admitted only on
condition that they brought with them no men, not even those of middle
age.
Adela and Ernestina, the daughters of Madame D’Hernilly, found this
lonely life very dull; in fact it suited ill with the vivacity of
their age; and, in order to enliven it, they managed to prevail upon
the two ladies, their neighbours, to leave behind them at the castle
three young persons who accompanied them there on a visit. This
addition to the family was delightful to Adela and Ernestina, for they
were equally in want of employment and amusement. They had read over
and over all the books they brought with them from Paris. As their
masters had not accompanied them, they did not pursue their studies
regularly, but only took occasionally a few lessons upon the
piano-forte, and of singing, so that a great portion of their time was
unemployed.
A moralist has said, with much reason, that the mind requires
relaxation; and as it is necessary to seek employment, in order to
preserve oneself from the evil habits which are the offspring of
idleness, so it is equally requisite to relieve the fatigue of labour
by recreation; a proper mixture of both keeps up the spirits, and
preserves the health of the mind as well as that of the body. In
mixing with society we lose the remembrance of past troubles, and even
present ones weigh less heavily upon our spirits. The mind, in short,
resembles a fruitful soil, like which it should sometimes be suffered
to lie fallow; or rather it may be compared to a farmer with whom a
landlord is obliged to act leniently, and to give him time for
payment, for fear that by demanding his rent too strictly, the
farmer’s resources should fail, and he should be ruined.
Our five young friends were not obliged to rack their brains to find
amusement. In the beginning of the visit the youngest, named Adriana,
taught the grown-up girls those dances which they had learned in their
childish days, but had already forgotten; “_My fine Castle_,” “_We
will not go again to the Wood_,” “_The Duke de Bourbon_,” _&c. &c._
These are things out of date, we must allow, but they will always be
new for children, and our imitations of them are, after all, lifeless
copies; they want the spirit of the originals――“_The Chevalier de la
Marjolaine_,” “_The Tower_,” “_Take Care_,” “_Hands Round_,” amused
even Madame D’Hernilly, who herself did not disdain sometimes to join
in them.
The pleasure which they found in renewing their childish games gave to
our young people the idea of taking advantage of a swing, which was
already erected in the garden. Persons of a more advanced age, and
distinguished by grave occupations, did not look upon it as any
disgrace to take the exercise of swinging, during the months of August
and September, when the castle was crowded with guests. The posts
which supported the swing were a little decayed since the preceding
year, but they were soon repaired. Madame D’Hernilly recommended
prudence to the young people in partaking of this amusement, and, as
an additional precaution, she took care to be present whenever they
enjoyed it, and strictly ordered that no one should swing in her
absence. They were prohibited standing upon the seat; neither were two
persons allowed to get in at the same time; Ernestina, or Aglaé, or
another of their friends, placed themselves by turns upon the seat,
which was furnished with a soft cushion; and, while the one who took
the exercise grasped the cords tightly with her two hands, two or
three of her companions pulled the end of the cord, and thus made it
go backward and forward.
Satiety would not have interrupted this amusement, but bad weather
came on suddenly, and it was impossible for our young folks to
frequent the garden. Thus thwarted in their favourite sport, they set
their wits to work to find out some other agreeable pastime.
Adriana regretted the swing less than her play-fellows: a new doll,
which had been sent her from Paris, was her faithful companion; and,
shall I add, the others envied her happiness? They contrived, however,
to participate in it, for, under the sly pretence of amusing little
Adriana, they made much of her doll. They took pains to dress her, to
curl her hair nicely, and to put on her cap to the best advantage.
They made dresses for her, and even pretty little rose-coloured silk
slippers. In short, the doll’s drawers were soon completely filled
with a very handsome wardrobe.
They were just beginning to tire of the amusement, which making the
doll’s clothes had at first afforded them, when one morning, Aglaé,
one of the young visitors, happening to open a book by chance, read
aloud, that it was by trying the effects of the reflection and the
refraction of the light through the fragile partitions of soap
bubbles, that the great Newton had discovered the properties of the
prism, and decomposed the rays of the sun.
Madame D’Hernilly expressed her admiration of this phenomenon in
natural philosophy; but she did not understand the subject
sufficiently to give her little auditors much information upon it.
“But pray,” cried Adriana giddily, “why should we not try to make some
discoveries ourselves, by blowing soap bubbles, they are so pretty?”
“Oh fie,” cried the elder girls, very consequentially; but one of them
immediately added, “I remember to have read in La Fontaine, this
excellent thought――‘Nothing is useless to people of sense.’”
“It is indeed a very just idea,” said Madame D’Hernilly, “and I think,
my children, you will do well to take advantage of Adriana’s
proposal.” The matter was then put to the vote, much in the same
manner as they had learned from the newspapers, the national affairs
are decided in the chamber of deputies. Ernestina, and one of the
young visitors, ranged themselves on the left, to shew that they
rejected a motion for playing at such a childish game; Adriana, and
her companions, took the right side, and they were lucky enough to
secure the support of the centre, of which Madame D’Hernilly was the
only member; they had consequently a majority, and it was decided that
they should play at blowing soap bubbles. “Who knows,” said Aglaé,
smiling, “whether we shall not, like the illustrious Newton, make some
new and great discovery.” This idea raised their impatience to begin,
and luckily, the preparations for their experiment were soon made. A
chambermaid brought some soap suds, rather thick in a china basin;
Adriana chose among some little bits of straw, the one which suited
best with her design, and slit the extremity in four parts, then
dipped the end she had slit in the soap suds, and blew in the other
extremity of the straw. Each blew in her turn, and formed bubbles
which reflected all the brilliant colours of the rainbow, but which,
unfortunately, were as transient as they were beautiful.
Madame D’Hernilly astonished the young people very much, by explaining
to them the process by which enamellers formed the balls of the
thermometer: it is done by blowing through a glass tube, the extremity
of which is made red hot, and softened by the fire of a lamp. She
added, that they had adopted this method also in glass manufactories,
and that goblets, bottles, in a word, almost all the utensils which we
use in glass and crystal, are blown in a similar manner.
Our little band now struggled with each other, to see who should form
the largest bubble, and who should make it rise highest in the air:
one of them waved her pocket-handkerchief to make it rise higher and
higher, till the bubble burst, and the illusion was destroyed. Madame
D’Hernilly, who recollected some verses on the subject of this
amusement, took the opportunity of repeating them, and impressing
their moral on the minds of her young audience.