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.