Smith, whose individuality was supposed to be sufficiently represented
by a sunbonnet worn wrong side before and a weekly addition to her
family, was never perfectly appreciated by her own circle although she
lived the character for a month. Another creation known as "The Proud
Lady"--a being whose excessive and unreasonable haughtiness was
so pronounced as to give her features the expression of extreme
nausea--caused her mother so much alarm that it had to be abandoned.
This was easily effected. The Proud Lady was understood to have died.
Indeed, most of Polly's impersonations were got rid of in this way,
although it by no means prevented their subsequent reappearance. "I
thought Mrs. Smith was dead," remonstrated her mother at the posthumous
appearance of that lady with a new infant. "She was buried alive and kem
to!" said Polly with a melancholy air. Fortunately, the representation
of a resuscitated person required such extraordinary acting, and was,
through some uncertainty of conception, so closely allied in facial
expression to the Proud Lady, that Mrs. Smith was resuscitated only for
a day.
The origin of the title of the Queen of the Pirate Isle may be briefly
stated as follows:--
An hour after luncheon, one day, Polly, Hickory Hunt, her cousin, and
Wan Lee, a Chinese page, were crossing the nursery floor in a Chinese
junk.
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