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228 CAROLINE PICHLEK.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦» The Suburban Solitude Of The Pichlers...
sant impression on the ininds of those she quitted . Madame de Stael soon after invited Madame Piehler to her own housewhere
, , in a small home circle , with no temptation to assume airs of pretension or coquetry , she could afford to be naturaland accordingly
, . app ¦ B e efore ared le to aving her vi Vienna sitor in this a much visit mor was e to amiable be returned light , . and scarcely
could . French and German characteristics be put in more forcible contrast , than in the description Madame P . gives of what took place
on the occasion . A large circle of ladies , her mother ' s usual associates , were anxious to see the foreign celebrityand by seven o ' clock
, , the usual hour for receiving visitors , a crowd of good German housewives had seated themselves round the large drawing-room table ,
each duly armed with her knitting pins and the inevitable stocking . The principal guest did not arrive until what seems to have been
thought the unconscionably late hour of half-past eight . Silently the ladies at the table rose to greet her and silently they took their
seats again , and being unable to converse in French , thus sat on the whole time the stranger remained , like so many machines ,
" knitting away , with nothing to say , " only now and then casting a curious glance at the great " Corinne" whoseated on the sofa
,, between Caroline and her mother , behaved very politely , and after entering into a lively conversation with them and the only two
gentlemen present , asked to hear Madame P . ' s new piano , praised h . er performancethen very soon took her departureto the relief
r it must be confessed , , of the whole company . The knitters , ' tongues , , now unloosed , soon began to indemnify themselves for the restraint
to which they had temporarily submitted , by indulging in very voluble criticisms on the departed visitorwhich would probably
, not have been the more favourable had they known , that in criticising them on her return to the house where she was staying , she
had characterized them as the Tricoteuses de la Tribune . Madame P . met her illustrious contemporary several times afterand enjoyed
the intercourse , but was very glad not to receive any , more visits from her .
A more congenial acquaintance was that formed with F . Schlegel and his wife , who about this time took up their abode in Vienna .
Their circumstances forbidding any efforts at display , all who visited them were received in a simple but thoroughly friendly styleand
, the hours the spent most with leasant them of were her life spoken . of b y Madame Piehler ¦ as among
But trouble was p again at hand . In 1809 Vienna was once more threatened with siegeand the family having resolved at all risks to
remain in the city , they , had to lay in stores of smoked meat , flour , dripping , & c , preparations which were only just completed , when the
bombardment began . From a garden in the suburbs , blooming in the soft serenity of Maythe Pichlers watched the fling shot and shell
, y as they sped upon their desolating errand , imagination picturing
perhaps some friend or acquaintance in each falling or flaming house .
228 Caroline Pichlek.
228 _CAROLINE PICHLEK .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 228, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/12/
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