The New Photograph, Robert W. Wright https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-new-photograph-152939/view_as/grid/search/keyword:photograph/page/1
WHY SHE WAS GRACIOUS.
A Lover Who Easily Fell Into an Ingenious Trap.
She was particularly gracious that night, and he was correspondingly happy. He felt that he had made an impression at last.
She let him hold her hand a minute when she welcomed him, and he thought–in fact, he was quite sure–that she responded to the gentle squeeze he gave it, and heretofore she had been so distant, so cold, although always courteous. Surely it was enough to make him feel happy. Then she laughed at his witticisms, and there was something in her manner that invited him to draw his chair closer to hers. Of course he accepted the invitation, and almost before he knew it he found himself whispering all sorts of silly things to her, while she listened with downcast eyes.
It was blissful, and yet there was a greater pleasure in store for him. She blushed and hesitated a little as she asked if he had a photograph of himself.
Of course he had, and she should have one that very night. He would go for one at once. She protested that that was not necessary, but he insisted. She should have anything that she wanted and have it at once.
She thanked him so coyly and sweetly when he brought it that the boy was nearly insane with joy, and when he left she let him hold her hand again for a minute.
Then, as he walked away with a light step and a light heart, she handed the photograph to her maid and said with decision:
“Mary, hang that in the servants’ hall, where every one can see it, and remember that I am never home when he calls. I must stop this thing somehow, and mamma changes servants so often he gets in every week or two now.”
The Copper County Evening News [Calumet MI] 19 August 1897: p. 7
Mrs Daffodil’s Aide-memoire: A little-known consequence of the Servant Problem…
Mrs Daffodil invites you to join her on the curiously named “Face-book,” where you will find a feast of fashion hints, fads and fancies, and historical anecdotes
You may read about a sentimental succubus, a vengeful seamstress’s ghost, Victorian mourning gone horribly wrong, and, of course, Mrs Daffodil’s efficient tidying up after a distasteful decapitation in A Spot of Bother: Four Macabre Tales.
Mrs Daffodil Digresses 