she says to
thee, Madhari Creeper: 'Oh, most radiant of twining plants, receive my
embraces, and return them with thy flexible arms: from this day, though
at a distance, I shall forever be thine.' How unconventional! I fancy
Mlle. L. must have inherited this style of conversation from her mamma;
all very well, when confined to flowers and 'creeping' things; but one
day, as she was out walking, she met 'by chance--the usual way,' Prince
Dashuranti, and our young lady said pretty much the same sort of thing
to him as to the 'Creeper,' falling violently in love with him at first
sight. It struck H. R. H. as a little peculiar--rather extraordinary in
a well-bred miss; but as it was leap year, and learning that she was the
only child, and would inherit all of papa's immense fortune, he married
her 'off-hand;'--well, that very afternoon at four o'clock--by the
sundial. You see it didn't take so long 'in those days,' to get the
trousseau, and all 'the things' in readiness. Papa raised his
sceptre-wand, and mumbled some infernal gibberish--and, lo! all the
trees and shrubs blossomed instanter, with the 'sweetest loves' of
things trimmed with 'real point;'--well, with something just as
delicious to the soul of a young (or middle-aged) maiden on the eve of
matrimony. There was no necessity, either, for an order to Bigelow
Bros., Boston--since, if Dushuranti wished to present her with a pair of
bracelets on her wedding day, he had but to 'push out' on the pond, and
get some waterlilies!

The 'gibberish' in which the old gentleman is said to have invoked the
backwoods 'Chandlers' and 'Hoveys,' I will obligingly translate for you,
as possibly you may not be able to read it in the original Sanscrit! Oh!
don't tell _me_ that you 'won't trouble me,' and all that. I _will_ bore
you, and nobody can save you!

'Hear, O ye trees of this hallowed forest, hear and proclaim that
Lacoontola is going to the palace of her wedded lord. She who drank not,
though thirsty, before you were watered; she who cropped not, through
affection for you, one of your fresh leaves, though she would have been
pleased with such an ornament for her locks; she whose chief delight was
in the season when your branches are sprayed with flowers,' &c., &c.
Should you like a photograph of this charming person, Lacoontola, taken
by Black & Batchelder, at the time of her marriage, 'Williams & Everett'
can oblige you. You will perceive, from her picture, that she is not t