 | Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family |  |
302
JUDGING VIRTUE BY ITS SMELL.
“It smells virtuous,” said Mrs. Partington, as she
smelt of the hartshorn-bottle that had long lain away in
an old-fashioned high closet, before which the old lady
stood, on a tall chair, exploring the dark interior of the
receptacle for “unconsidered trifles.” “It smells virtuous.”
We had often heard of the peculiar odor of
goodness, that rises like frankincense amid an atmosphere
of vice; and here was a practical application that
attested the justness of the term. It was sublime! and
the figure standing there on the high chair, like Truth
on a pedestal, with the specs, and the close cap, and the
blue yarn stockings, formed a subject for a sculptor,
poorer than which had immortalized hundreds.
| Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family | |