“To tell the truth, I sat down and cried; for I am high-spirited, and I could not bear the thoughts of such a mortification. But Anne is an excellent manager, you know, Jane–“
“Yes, I remember her.”
“Anne had a plan that carried all off triumphantly. She proposed to me, to persuade the other three ‘evening bells,’ that to do honour to the pic-nic, we should be dressed alike, in a sort of uniform. Well, of course, the others agreed; but then, how to find the five dresses alike! Of course, we couldn’t wear anything made in Saratoga. The poet had entreated us, in a sonnet, to be all dressed in white; so we fixed upon white batiste–but, how to get them, was the question.”
“I am all curiosity–” said Elinor.
“Oh! it was beautifully done,–Anne proposed we should all write an advertisement for a trusty escort to New York, and post it up on the curtains of the ladies’ drawing-room. What fun we had, while we were writing the advertisements! We took an opportunity, when we and our beaux had the drawing-room to ourselves, to vote the gentlemen out of it. After a while, they went; but, what do you suppose the wretches did, Mr. Hazlehurst?”
“Nothing ungallant, I trust.”
“Yes; to spite us, they crowded to the windows on the piazza, till we dropped the blinds. Well, for a time, we thought we were safe; but suddenly Anne Hunter shouted out, and there comfortably seated in a tree close to the end window, where the blind was broken, we saw one of the young gentlemen with a note-book in his hand! We vowed we wouldn’t be defeated, so we pinned up our pocket-handkerchiefs together, and, fortunately, they covered the peep-hole; and so we shut him out, at last.”
“Your perseverance, under such obstacles, was truly surprising, Miss Taylor;” said Hazlehurst.
“Was it not? We soon wrote our advertisements. Mine was very short: ‘Wanted, an agreeable youth, as escort between this and New York, apply this evening, at five o’clock.’ Some were very long and ridiculous; one was in verse. Well, after we had written them, we opened the doors and windows, and the young gentlemen flocked in again. Then we went in procession, and pinned them up on the curtains. Such a time as we had–talking and giggling–we were in such a gale, that, at last, some of the married ladies came out to see what was the matter. But, the best fun of all, was choosing our escorts; a great many offered, and then we examined them.”
“I hope they had suitable qualifications for the office.”
“Oh, yes.–I took Mr. Hunter, Anne’s brother. Well, sure enough, we all set out together, the next morning; staid one day in the city; and, Thursday morning, we re-appeared with the dresses. Of course, Anne and I had taken the opportunity to get a fresh supply, besides the white batiste. We had a most delightful pic-nic. I forgot to say, that Anne’s escort, the Marquis Foletti, was missing; she had to do without him–she gave him up for lost, or absconded, and we allowed her to choose another beau–when suddenly, just as we were mourning over the Marquis, he appeared on the ground, and threw himself on his knees, and made us laugh more than ever. Anne had chosen him, because he had the handsomest moustaches at Saratoga; but he could not speak English very well, and had got on board the wrong boat. What times we had! Jane, I wish you had been there!”
“Your faithful esquires were rewarded, no doubt, by the gallantry of the deed itself, Miss Taylor,” said Harry.
“Of course; but we nevertheless gave them, besides, full permission to say and do just what they pleased, all that day–and you can’t think how much nonsense we talked. Each gentleman took the advertisement of the lady he had escorted, and pinned it over his heart. There were several foreigners there, and you can’t think how they enjoyed it; they had never had such a frolic with young ladies before, and they thought it delightful; though, to be sure, they got at last to be rather too free; and then we had to put a stop to it.”
Elinor looked at Jane, to see if she seemed to sympathize in Adeline’s story; but her cousin’s beautiful face was still bright with the glow of pleasure from meeting her friend; no other thought or feeling was to be traced there.
“I don’t believe they have any such fun in Paris, Mr. Hazlehurst.”
“Not exactly.–They have a pleasantry of their own, however, which is quite agreeable.”
“I don’t think I should like it. They say, a young lady dares not speak to gentlemen, nor walk with them, nor have the least bit of a flirtation. How stupid it must be!”
“But the French girls do talk to gentlemen, I assure you,” replied Jane, “only they are not intimate with everybody. The young men are very attentive, too; they treat young girls with much more respect, Louisa says, than in America.”
“Who cares for respect! I want to laugh and amuse myself, and have my own way,” exclaimed Adeline.
“It is growing quite warm here–you will find it pleasanter in the drawing-room, Miss Taylor;” said Elinor, not caring to listen any longer to Jane’s giddy friend.
“Well, if you please, I’ll run up to Jane s room, and look at the fashions–I am dying to see some of her capes and collars. By-the-bye, I had forgotten two very important things. Here is a note for your aunt, Miss Elinor; some private communication from Ma; the coachman will take the answer. And then, I came over to ask you all to drink tea with us, this evening, very sociably; nobody but your own family and three or four friends!”
The invitation was accepted, as a matter of course.
“Good morning, Mr. Hazlehurst; I expect to be shut up with Jane, for three hours to come; I have really talked myself out of breath; but that is always the way, with me, as you know, of old.” And the two girls, hand-in-hand, ran lightly up stairs, where Elinor, making an excuse of Mrs. Taylor’s note, left them to a confidential tete-a-tete.
CHAPTER XI.
“A soldier may be anything, if brave; So may a merchant if not quite a knave.” COWPER.
“Trade his delight and hope; and, if alive, Doubt I have none, that Barnaby will thrive.” CRABBE.
{William Cowper (English poet, 1731-1800), “Hope” lines 201-210. George Crabbe (English poet, 1754-1832), “Posthumous Tales: VIII Barnaby; the Shopman” lines II.3-4}
WE have really been very remiss in omitting so long to notice the rapid strides with which Mr. Pompey Taylor had advanced on the road to fame and fortune, during the two years in which we have lost sight of him. He might have addressed, to the reader, the remark that the Emperor Napoleon applied to his secretary, after the conquest of Prussia and Austria: “J’ai fait des progres immenses depuis que Bourienne {sic} m’a quitte!”
{“J’ai fait des…” = I have made immense progress since Bourienne left me! Louis-Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (1769-1834) was a French diplomat who served as Napoleon’s private secretary during his invasion of Egypt}
It is a rule, in composition, it was so, at least, when people wrote by rule, to compare the little with the great. If we were to follow the direction, it would be easy to prove that these two individuals, the conqueror, Napoleon, and the speculator, Taylor, were not too widely separated for many points of resemblance to be traced between them. Ambition was the ruling passion of both; and both were alike insatiable. Bonaparte added kingdom to kingdom; Taylor, house to house; the emperor might believe himself equal to ruling half the world; the merchant felt capable of owning the other half. The one raised army after army; the other fitted out vessel after vessel. The energies of both were inexhaustible, and both aimed at an ever-receding goal; while each, in his own way, soon reached a height never dreamed of by the mothers who rocked their cradles. Nor would it be justice to Mr. Taylor, to suppose, that the love of money, alone, was the main-spring of his actions; he, too, was spurred on by the love of glory; dollars and cents were not the end, with him; he looked upon his thousands, in gold and paper, as Napoleon did upon his thousands in flesh and blood–they were but the instruments which were to open the road to fame. The man of commerce, and the man of war, were alike lavish of their treasures, when the object of their lives was in view. If one was the boldest of generals, the other was the most enterprising of merchants; and Fortune favoured the daring of both. In short, Mr. Taylor was no common, plodding trader, content with moderate gains and safe investments, and fixing his hopes on probabilities–he pursued traffic with the passion of a gambler, united to the close calculation of a miser; and yet, he spent freely what he had acquired easily.
There are merchants, who, by their education, their integrity, their talents and their liberality, are an honour to the profession; but Mr. Pompey Taylor was not of the number. We have all heard the anecdote of the young man addicted to the sin of swearing, whose conversation, during dinner, was taken down in short-hand, and, when read afterwards, shocked the individual himself. Could the thoughts and words of Mr. Taylor, during a single day, have been as fairly registered, perhaps he himself would have been astonished to find how very large a portion of them were given to gain and speculation, in some shape or other. At social meetings, whether dinners or evening parties, he seldom talked long on any other subject: he has been known to utter the word ‘stocks,’ just as he entered a church, on Sunday; while a question about certain lots was the first sentence which passed his lips, as he crossed the threshold on his way out. Eating his meals under his own roof; walking down Broadway to Wall-Street, every morning, at nine o’clock, and back again every afternoon at three; still the echo of Mr. Taylor’s thoughts and words was ‘dollars,’ ‘stocks,’ and ‘lots’–‘ lots,’ ‘stocks,’ and ‘dollars.’ He had a value for everything in dollars–his jokes turned upon stocks–and his dreams were filled with lots. Let it not be supposed, however, that Mr. Pompey Taylor was born with the phrenological organ of the love of money more strongly developed than other human beings. By no means. He was endowed by nature with faculties and feelings as varied as other men. But, from the time he could first walk and talk, precept and example had gradually turned all his faculties in one direction; for, such had been the opinions and views of his father and elder brothers; and there was no other impulse in his nature or education, sufficiently strong to give a different bent to his energies. Under other circumstances, Pompey Taylor might have been a quick-witted lawyer, a supple politician, a daring soldier, or, with a different moral training, he might have been something far superior to either; but the field of commerce was the only one that opened to him, at his entrance into life; and it was too well adapted to the man, such as nature and education had made him, to be neglected. He found full scope, in such a sphere, for all his energies of body and mind–he delighted in its labours and its rewards.
{“phrenological” = from the pseudo-science of phrenology, which interpreted character by feeling the bulges on the human head}
Mr. Taylor had forgotten, if he had ever known the fact, that the best pleasures of this world even, are those which money cannot purchase, the severest wants those which it cannot supply. He had no conception of any consideration equal to that which riches give. Beauty unadorned was no beauty in his eyes; and he chiefly valued talent as a means of making good investments and wily speculations. He looked upon Science as the hand-maiden of Commerce; Armies and Navies existed only to defend a nation’s wealth, not its liberties, or its honour. The seat of his patriotism was in his pocket; and the only internal improvement in which he was interested, was that which opened new facilities for acquiring money. It is surprising how totally such a mind becomes unfitted to enjoy and admire any great or noble quality in the abstract; in spite of a quick wit and keen organs, such men become the most one-sided beings, perhaps, in the whole human family. To moral beauty Mr. Taylor seemed quite blind; his mental vision resembled the physical sight of those individuals whose eyes, though perfect in every other respect, are incapable of receiving any impression of an object tinged with blue–the colour of the heavens. Even the few ideas he had upon religious subjects partook of the character of loss and gain; the simple spirit of true piety could never enter into a mind in the state of his. And yet, Mr. Taylor was looked upon as a happy man. Fortunate he certainly was, for wealth and luxury had risen around him almost as readily as if possessed of Aladdin’s lamp. Had he been actually in possession of this gift of the genii, he could scarcely have found a wish to gratify, as money had already provided him with all it can supply in this country, and the pursuit of wealth itself was his delight. Deprived of this, Othello’s occupation were gone.
{“Othello’s occupation were gone” = William Shakespeare, “Othello”, III.iii.358}
Justice to Mr. Taylor would require that we should follow him to the counting-house, for it was there that he appeared in the most brilliant light. His talents were undoubted; his sagacity, his skill, and his daring were great; and his undertakings were generally successful. Thus far all appeared very well; but those who looked closer into the matter would have found that his integrity was anything but unimpeachable, his love of money far surpassing his love of truth and justice. This part of his career must be left, however, to other hands; it is only what he was in social and domestic life, that the merchant appears among our Longbridge friends.
The first few months after he had removed to New York, the utmost extent of Mr. Taylor’s ambitious dreams had been the possession of a brick house in Broadway, on a lot of ground twenty-three feet by seventy. According to the favourite rule of New York architecture, the rule of three, the building was to be three stories high, and three windows wide. But the end of the first ninety days in Wall-Street, brought an accession of several thousands, and the brilliant promise of so many more, that this plan was enlarged several inches each way. As every succeeding season brought an increase of wealth and ambition, the projected dwelling grew at last to be taller and broader by several feet, until, at length, it had reached the limits which magnificence usually attains on the island of Manhattan. Had Mr. Taylor built his house in Philadelphia, or almost any other American town, he might have laid rather a broader foundation for his habitation; but New York houses, as a rule, are the narrowest and the tallest in the land. Some of those three-story dwellings, however, whatever may be their architectural defects, contain inmates who are as much to be desired for friends as any others in the world. But to return to Mr. Taylor’s new house; we have said that it was one of the proud few which could boast its four stories and its four windows. He was perfectly satisfied with the result when finished, for his house from the garret to the cellar was a faithful copy of one opposite to him, which had been built some months earlier, and was pronounced the house of the season.
The American people may have been perfectly original in their constitution, but in most other respects they are particularly imitative. An observer, at a first glance, wonders that so much cleverness should be wasted in mere imitation; but it is, after all, the simple result of the position of the country. An intelligent people, we are furnished by books with more ideas than we have models on which to shape them. In an old state of society, there is always a class who labour after originality, and are proud to be called eccentric; but a young nation, cut off from the rest of the civilized world, must necessarily be imitative in its character until it has arrived at maturity. This spirit of imitation, to a certain extent an advantage, is, to be sure, often carried to a laughable extent when it loses sight of common sense. People seem to forget the fact that propriety must always be the first step to true elegance. As a proof of it, we see men who appear to have consulted their neighbours’ tastes, habits, and means, instead of their own, in building the house they themselves are to inhabit; like Mr. Taylor, without any very good reason, they imitate their opposite neighbour. Again, it is surprising to see what time and toil are spent in following every variation of fashion in dress, by many women who certainly can ill afford it; we do not mean fashion in its general outlines, but in its most trifling details. If one could watch the progress of an idle fancy of this nature, from the moment it springs from the caprice of some European elegante, with more time and money than she knows how to throw away, until it becomes a necessity to an American housemaid, earning a dollar a week–we have no doubt the period would be found surprisingly short.
{“elegante” = a fashionable lady (French)}
The habit of imitation just alluded to, is more striking perhaps in architecture than in anything else, for in that shape it is always before our eyes; and no place in the country is more marked with it than New York. In no town in he world are there as many dwellings so much alike; and this fact is not the result of necessity, or of any plan of architectural unity–it is not that the plan first hit upon proved to be the most rational, or best suited to the spot and its inhabitants–but it is chiefly the consequence of a spirit of imitation.
To return to our story: this new house of Mr. Taylor, this successful imitation of his opposite neighbour, had been opened the first of May, the general moving day in New York. It was fitted up in the richest manner, young Taylor having received carte blanche from his father to purchase handsome furniture in Paris. Rosewood and satin, gilt bronzes and Sevres vases, were all of the best kind–and Mr. Taylor was perfectly satisfied with the effect of his two drawing-rooms. It was determined they should be shown off during the following winter, by a succession of dinners and parties. He had already tried his hand at entertaining; after having eaten a dozen great dinners with different commercial notabilities, he had given one himself just before leaving town. The affair, a man-dinner, of course, had gone off brilliantly–thanks to his beautiful porcelaine de Sevres, his candelabras and his epergnes, his English plate and English glass; all of which showed off to great advantage the best of the good things abounding in the New York market, cooked by a Frenchman, and washed down by wines from the most famous vineyards of France, Germany, and Spain. His entertainment was pronounced as handsome as any given that winter in town; and Mr. Taylor determined that it should be only the first of a long series.
{“general moving day” = in New York City, at this time, leases for the rental of houses generally expired on May 1; “porcelaine de Sevres” = expensive chinaware from the French town of Sevres; “epergne” = an elaborate bowl used as a table centerpiece (French)}
His country-house rivalled his establishment in town. By his first plan, he had intended that it should equal that of Mr. Hubbard, at Longbridge; but eighteen months had made a material change in his affairs, which produced corresponding alterations in the building. First one large wing was added, then another; Mr. Hubbard’s house had but one Corinthian portico, Mr. Taylor’s had two. He was born in a house which had been painted only on one front, and he was now of the opinion of the old tar, who purchased a handsome jacket like his commanding officer, but ordered the back as well as the front to be made of satin, and meeting the admiral, pulled up his coat-tails to show that there was “no sham.” Mr. Taylor could not outdo the plate-glass, and mahogany doors of Mr. Hubbard’s house, but he had great satisfaction in showing him his portico on the south front, and in proving there was no sham. When the wings were added, they were completely surrounded on three sides by a colonnade. Mr. Taylor having happened, just at the moment, to make thirty thousand dollars by one successful speculation, he sent orders to the master-builder for a double set of columns; and as a consequence, the colonnade was so very conspicuous that it became the pride of the neighbourhood. Mr. Taylor, himself, was so much struck with the first view, when completed, that he decided to name the place “Colonnade Manor.” There is no accounting for taste in names, we suppose, any more than in other matters. Like No. five hundred and —– Broadway, Colonnade Manor was furnished with rosewood and satin from Paris.
Mrs. Taylor, good soul, entered very little into the spirit of this magnificence. She still sat in her nursery with her younger children as much as possible, darning all the stockings of the family; an occupation which Adeline thought very ungenteel, for she never condescended to use her needle at all. To make Mrs. Taylor a fine lady had been one of the least successful of Mr. Taylor’s efforts; she was much too honest by nature to assume a character for which she was so little qualified. There was but one way in which she could succeed in interesting herself in all the parade which gratified Mr. Taylor’s taste; she found it gave pleasure to her husband and children, and she endeavoured to make the best of it. She wore the fine dresses purchased for her by Adeline, and drove out once in a while in her handsome carriage, to pay at least a few of the many visits urged by Mr. Taylor. Among the new acquaintances she had made in the last ten years, there were few Mrs. Taylor liked as well as Miss Wyllys; and Miss Agnes, in her turn, respected all that was honest and straight-forward in the character of her new neighbour; indeed, the whole family at Wyllys-Roof very much preferred her to the more pretending husband and daughter. The note, of which Adeline was the bearer, was an application to Miss Wyllys for advice in some domestic difficulty. It ran as follows:
“MY DEAR MISS WYLLYS:–
“You have been so kind to me, ever since we moved into your neighbourhood, that I hope you will excuse me for asking your assistance, this morning. I have been a good deal plagued in my kitchen ever since we came into the country this spring. My cook and chamber-maid, who are sisters, are always finding some excuse for wanting to go to the city; and last night they got a letter, or pretended to get one from New York, saying that their father was very sick; and as I didn’t know but it might be true, I couldn’t refuse them, and they have gone for a week–though I won’t be sure it was not for a mere frolic. As it happened, Mr. Taylor and Adeline came back from Saratoga, last night, and brought a house-full of company with them; an old friend of mine whom I had not seen for years, and some new acquaintances of Adeline’s. To make matters worse, my nurse, a faithful, good girl, who has lived with me for years, was taken sick this morning; and John, the waiter, had a quarrel with the coachman, and went off in a huff. You know such things always come together. So I have now only the coachman and his daughter, a little girl of twelve, in the house; happily they are both willing, and can do a little of everything. If you know of anybody that I can find to take the place of cook, or housemaid, I shall be truly obliged to you for giving the coachman their names and directions.
“Adeline is to have a little party this evening; she met several of our Longbridge friends on board the boat yesterday, and took that opportunity of asking them, as she is very anxious to make the house pleasant to her company. I dare say she has already invited all your family, and I shall be very sorry if you are not able to come, for we always miss you more than any others of our neighbours.
“Hoping you will excuse the trouble I give you, I remain, dear Madam,
“Very respectfully and truly yours,
“HESTER TAYLOR.”
Miss Wyllys had no sooner read the note, than, full of sympathy for Mrs. Taylor’s difficulties, she held a consultation with her female factotum, Elinor’s nurse, or Mammy as she was called. All the men, women, and children in the neighbourhood, who might possibly possess some qualifications for the duties of cook, chamber-maid, or footman, were run over in Miss Agnes’ mind; and she succeeded at last, by including one superannuated old woman, and another child of ten, in making out a list of some dozen names for her neighbour’s benefit. The whole morning was spent by the coachman, scouring the country with the Taylor barouche and horses–for no time was to be spent in changing harness–in pursuit of Dianthy This, and Araminty That. Mrs. Taylor, of course, awaited his return with trembling anxiety; the Saratoga party had gone off to fish, escorted by Mr. Taylor and a younger daughter; Adeline having taken that opportunity to go to see Jane, excusing herself from accompanying the fishing set, on account of the arrival of this very intimate friend of hers. The mistress of the house, after having administered a dose of medicine to the sick nurse, and sent the little girl of twelve to make the beds and sweep, gave one melancholy look at things in the kitchen, and then remembered that she could no longer leave this particular old friend of her’s alone in the drawing-room. While talking over past times, Mrs. Taylor chose a rocking-chair commanding a view of the approach to the house: just at the moment when she began to fear the horses had run away, killed the coachman, and broken the carriage, she saw the barouche driving up the avenue, but, alas, sans cook! She kept her seat womanfully, and heard out the end of a long story which the old friend was relating about a family of relations. But at length Mrs. Taylor found that the moment for action had come; and giving her friend the choice of her own knitting-work, or a walk in the garden with her youngest child, a pretty prattling little boy, she excused herself for a few moments, under pretext of looking after the sick nurse. The old friend was quite a talkative person, and one to whom a listener was very necessary; she preferred the little boy to the knitting-work, and set out to look at-the garden.
Mrs. Taylor instantly disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.
“Well, John!”
“Well, marm, I couldn’t pick up nobody, for love or money.”
“Didn’t Miss Wyllys know of any one in the neighbourhood?”
“Yes, marm; I have got a list here; but some of ’em had got places already; there was two that was sick; one, Araminty Carpenter, I guess, would have suited Mrs. Taylor very well, for, I know the young woman’s father; but she has gone over to Longbridge, to work at the Union Hotel, for a week. There was one name written so I couldn’t make it out; and two of ’em I couldn’t find; folks couldn’t tell me where they lived. There is a young thing down at the Mill, who looks handy, but doesn’t know anything of cooking; but, I engaged her to come to-morrow, and Mrs. Taylor can see if she suits.”
“Why didn’t you bring her with you at once, John?”
“She couldn’t come, no ways, till to-morrow; she was washing; and, if she left the work, there was no one to do it.”
Let it not be supposed that Mrs. Taylor sunk under these difficulties. The fishing-party returned; and, by means known only to herself, the coachman, and the little girl of twelve, a dinner, much as usual, was provided for her guests, who were left in happy ignorance of the desertion in the kitchen.
It must be surprising, to those unaccustomed to such things, to observe with what courage and cheerfulness the mistress of an American family encounters the peculiar evils of her lot–evils undreamt of by persons in the same station in any other part of the world. Her energies seem to rise with the obstacles that call them out; she is full of expedients–full of activity; and, unless fairly worn out by exertion for which she has not the physical strength, always manages to keep up appearances, and provide for the comfort of her household, until her troubles are surmounted, for the time being, and she gathers strength, in a moment of respite, for fresh difficulties, when they present themselves. Even her husband and sons are seldom aware of her toils and vexations. Many people are ignorant of the number of virtues that are included, at such moments, in that of hospitality; could a plain, unvarnished account, be made out, of the difficulties surmounted, at some time or other, by most American matrons, the world would wonder at their fortitude and perseverance. Not that difficulties like those of our friend, Mrs. Taylor, are of constant duration, but they occur oftener than the uninitiated are aware of. Yet even obstacles like these seem never to interfere with that constant intercourse, from tea-parties to visits of weeks, which are exchanged between all American families and their friends. But then no people in the world are more truly hospitable–none are more social in their feelings, than the inhabitants of these United States.
CHAPTER XII.
“Come, come; deal justly with me; come, Come; nay, speak!”
Hamlet.
“Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in extremity.”
Romeo and Juliet.
{William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, II.ii.275-276; “Romeo and Juliet”, I.iii.100-102}
OF course, nothing interfered with the party at Colonnade Manor. Thanks to Mrs. Taylor, the coachman and the little girl of twelve–quite a womanly, precocious, little thing, by-the-way–all went off very well. Some curious person, uninitiated in similar domestic mysteries, may wish to know how things were managed at such a trying crisis. Well, in the first place, Mrs. Taylor congratulated herself that her guests had been asked to ‘spend the evening,’ and not invited ‘to tea.’ This was a piece of good luck, which diminished her cares, and prevented the deep mortification she must have felt had the tea and coffee been cold. The coachman, of course, officiated as footman; a duty to which he was already somewhat accustomed. The little girl of twelve began the evening as ladies’-maid, appearing in the dressing-room in that capacity, helping the ladies to take off their shawls and smooth the folds of their dresses, before they made their entrance in the drawing-rooms. The company soon collected–about fifty or sixty persons, altogether–and in party dress; each having been invited quite sociably, by Miss Adeline. They were not at all surprised to see each other, however, for they had often already practised the same agreeable deception, themselves. The company once assembled, the little girl of twelve rolled up her sleeves, and took her station in the pantry, where she replenished the cake-baskets, the lemonade and sangaree-glasses handed about by her father, the coachman. A supper table was already spread in the dining-room; it had been very prettily ornamented with flowers by Adeline, and her Saratoga friends; and a plentiful supply of fruits, ices, jellies, syllabubs, creams, and other delicacies for a light supper, had been prepared, in the course of the morning, by Mrs. Taylor and her coadjutors, the coachman and the little girl of twelve. The talkative old friend had been admitted behind the scenes so far, as to learn that the mistress of the house would be obliged to make all the good things herself; and she had shown that, besides telling a long story, she could make very excellent sponge-cake; for, unfortunately, it was discovered that it would be necessary to increase the supply of that delicacy. Adeline did her share; while her Saratoga friends were taking a morning siesta, with a novel in their hands, she had made the syllabub, and prepared the fruit. These arrangements having been made, the little girl of twelve had received orders to station herself near at hand, where she could be sent of {sic} errands up and down stairs. The coachman was told to take his place by the side-table, ready to be called upon, if necessary. Mrs. Taylor herself–alas! that we should be obliged to reveal the fact, expected to slip out of the drawing-room at about half-past ten, and superintend the delicate operation of removing the jellies from their moulds; this would require ten minutes to do, and she hoped to make her exit and ingress unnoticed; a matter easily managed, in summer, when the doors and windows are all open, and couples arm-in-arm, are loitering about, in and out in all directions. This task performed, when she had returned to the public notice, some ten minutes after having seen everything in its place, the coachman was expected to appear at the drawing-room door, with composed manner, to announce that supper was ready–a fact she was prepared to hear with the expression of sublime indifference, required by etiquette. From that moment, everything would become easy; for, of course, the gentlemen would, as usual, take care of the ladies first, and then help themselves. The gallant way in which these light, standing suppers are always managed, among us, is, by-the-bye, a pleasant and sensible arrangement; nothing better could be devised, under the circumstances. The plan of operations thus sketched, we may as well say, at once, that everything succeeded to admiration.
{“sangaree” = a cold drink of flavored, diluted wine; “syllabub” = a drink of milk and wine}
The evening was pronounced very pleasant; and, as several of our friends were present, we shall follow them. There was a great deal of talking and laughing; a reasonable quantity of flirtation; and, once or twice, some romping in the corner of the room where Miss Adeline happened to be at the time. Among those who had excused themselves from accepting the invitation, were Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hazlehurst, who disliked the idea of going so far, and Mr. and Mrs. Graham, the lady being detained at home by a headach {sic}, the gentleman by a particular dislike to Mr. Taylor, who, he thought, had behaved in an ungentlemanly manner about a mortgage, in which they both happened to be interested. Mr. Graham was a man of a violent temper, and unsocial habits, generally taking little pains to conceal his feelings; and accordingly, his manner to Mr. Taylor was anything but flattering, though their acquaintance, at best, was but trifling. Mrs. Graham also disliked the whole family; and yet the intimacy between Jane and Adeline was allowed to continue, as a sort of matter of course, between school companions.
Miss Wyllys accompanied her niece to the party–she generally made it a point to go with Elinor; for, she had old-fashioned notions on the subject, and thought that the presence of their elders was an advantage and a protection that well-educated young girls have a right to expect from their friends. She seldom spoke on the matter, however, but contented herself with giving, what she thought, a good example. Both Miss Agnes and Elinor were rather surprised to find that Jane’s partiality for her giddy friend Adeline, had not been in the least diminished, by her visit to Europe. Miss Wyllys disapproved of the intimacy; but, as Jane’s mother had no objections, she herself could say nothing. The two young ladies were a great deal together, in the course of the evening, as became bosom-friends after a long separation. Mrs. Taylor’s old friend, the talkative lady, was introduced to several of the elder portion of the company, and was thus happily provided with listeners. Miss Adeline’s fashionable acquaintances from Saratoga, were also supplied, each with a couple of attendant beaux, upon whom to try the effect of their charms. Everything thus happily arranged, Miss Adeline proposed a ‘march’ which was managed as usual. Young Van Horne, who had some musical capabilities, was placed at the piano, and played Washington’s March, when the young people paired off in a line, and began to walk, moving in time up and down the two drawing-rooms, through the folding-doors–each gentleman, of course, offering his arm to a lady; chaque chacun, avec sa chacune. Adeline was not quite satisfied with her cavalier, Charlie Hubbard; she did not care much about him, at any time; and, on the present occasion, he seemed less interested in listening to her own conversation, than in watching the movements of some one else; who it was, she could not say. She reproached him with this inattention.
{“chaque chacun, avec sa chacune” = each one with his own (French)}
“I declare, I don’t believe you hear half I say. I never saw anybody like you.”
“Charlie blushed a little, rallied, and devoted himself more exclusively to the duty of being entertained. After the second or third turn in the march, Adeline discovered Hazlehurst, who, instead of being in motion with the rest, was leaning in a door-way. As she passed him, she snapped her embroidered handkerchief in that direction, and summoned him to join the ‘promenade.’ Harry excused himself by saying, he was afraid he could not find any one to walk with him.
“How can you talk so! There is Miss Wyllys, I declare; I had not seen her before.”–And Adeline crossed the room to a window where Elinor was sitting quietly as a looker-on, having just escaped from a long conversation with the talkative old friend.
“Now, Miss Wyllys, I am sure you must wish to promenade!”
“Would you like to walk?” quietly asked Hazlehurst, who had followed Miss Taylor.
“No, indeed,” said Elinor, smiling and shaking her head good-naturedly. “I have had one long walk, already, this afternoon, and much prefer sitting still, just now.”
“You should follow Jane’s example; you see, she is promenading, and, I dare say, she took the walk with you, too,” said Adeline.
“Did you ever know Jane take a long walk, when she could help it?” asked Elinor, smiling. “I had really rather sit still, Miss Taylor.”
Adeline, finding that on this occasion she could not succeed in setting all her friends in motion, which she generally endeavoured to do, returned to the ranks; leaving Elinor to do as she chose. Hazlehurst took a seat by her, and made some inquiries about several of their old acquaintances in the room.
“Don’t you think those two young ladies both very pretty, Mr. Hazlehurst,” said Dr. Van Horne, approaching the spot where Harry was standing near Elinor, after having given up his chair to one of the Saratoga belles, when the march was finished.
“Which do you mean, sir?” asked Harry.
“Miss Taylor and Miss Graham, who are standing together near the piano.”
“Yes,” replied Hazlehurst, “Miss Taylor is even prettier than I had supposed she would be.”
“She will not compare, however, with Miss Jane. To my mind, Miss Graham answers the idea of perfect beauty. In all your travels, did you meet with a face that you thought more beautiful?”
“I believe not,” said Harry, laconically, and slowly colouring at the same time.
“Is it Jane you were speaking of, Doctor?” inquired Elinor, turning towards him. “Don’t you think she has come back twice as beautiful as she was last year? It is really a pleasure to look at a face like hers.”
“I am afraid, it will prove rather a dangerous pleasure, Miss Elinor, to some of the beaux, this winter.”
“No doubt she will be very much admired; but she takes it all very quietly. I don’t believe your great beauties as much disposed to vanity as other people.”
“Perhaps not;” replied the doctor, drawing near her. “A great deal depends on education. But what do the travellers tell you about the sights they have seen, Miss Elinor?”
“Oh, we have only gone as far as the first chapter of their travels,” she replied. “They have not half said their say yet.”
“Well, I should like to have a talk with you on the subject, Mr. Hazlehurst. I was in hopes of meeting your brother here, to-night, but he has not come, I find; I shall have to bore you with my questions, unless you want to dance this jig, or whatever it is, they are beginning.”
“Not at all, my dear sir; I shall be glad to answer any questions of yours.”
“Thank you. Suppose we improve the opportunity, Miss Elinor, and give him a sharp cross-examination; do you think he would bear it?”
“I hope so,” said Elinor, smiling quietly, as if she felt very easy on the subject.
“Don’t trust him too far. I dare say you have not been half severe enough upon him,” said Dr. Van Horne, who had a very high opinion of Harry. “But to speak seriously, Mr. Hazlehurst, I don’t at all like a notion my son Ben has of going to Europe.”
“What is your objection?”
“I doubt if it is at all an advantage to send most young men to Europe. I’ve seen so many come back conceited, and dissatisfied, and good-for-nothing, that I can’t make up my mind to spoil Ben by the same process. He tries very hard to persuade me, that now-a-days, no doctor is fit to be trusted who has not finished off in Paris; but we managed without it thirty years ago.”
“You must know much more than I do on that subject, doctor,” said Hazlehurst, taking a seat on the other side of Elinor.
“Of course, I know more about the hospitals. But as I have never been abroad myself, I don’t know what effect a sight of the Old World has on one. It seems to me it ruins a great many young fellows.”
“And it improves a great many,” said Hazlehurst.
“I am by no means so sure of that. It improves some, I grant you; but I think the chances are that it is an injury. We have happened to see a great deal, lately, of two young chaps, nephews of mine, who came home last spring. Three years ago they went abroad, sober, sensible, well-behaved lads enough, and now they have both come back, worse than good-for-nothing. There was Rockwell, he used to be a plain, straight-forward, smooth-faced fellow; and now he has come home bristling with whiskers, and beard, and moustaches, and a cut across the forehead, that he got in a duel in Berlin. Worse than all, his brain is so befogged, and mystified, that he can’t see anything straight to save his life; and yet, forsooth, my gentleman is going to set the nation to rights with some new system of his own.”
“I know nothing of the German Universities, doctor, from my own observation; but I should think it might be a dangerous thing to send a young man there unless he was well supplied with sound common sense of his own.”
“Well, there is Bill Hartley, again, who staid all the time in Paris. He has come back a regular grumbler. If you would believe him, there is not a single thing worth having, from one end of the Union to the other. He is disgusted with everything, and only last night said that our climate wants fog! Now, I think it is much better to go plodding on at home, than to travel for the sake of bringing back such enlarged views as make yourself and your friends uncomfortable for the rest of your days.”
“But it is a man’s own fault, my dear sir, if he brings back more bad than good with him. The fact is, you will generally find the good a man brings home, in proportion to the good he took abroad.”
“I’m not so sure of that. I used to think Rockwell was quite a promising young man at one time. But that is not the question. If, after all, though it does sharpen a man’s wits, it only makes him discontented for the rest of his life, I maintain that such a state of improvement is not to be desired. If things are really better and pleasanter in Europe, I don’t want to know it. It would make me dissatisfied, unless I was to be a renegade, and give up the country I was born in; would you have a man do that?”
“Never!” said Harry. “I hold that it is a sort of desertion, to give up the post where Providence has placed us, unless in extreme cases; and I believe a man can live a more useful and more honourable life there than elsewhere. But I think travelling a very great advantage, nevertheless. The very power of comparison, of which you complain, is a source of great intellectual pleasure, and must be useful if properly employed, since it helps us to reach the truth.”
The doctor shook his head. “I want you just to tell me how much of this grumbling and fault-finding is conceit, and how much is the natural consequence of travelling? Is everything really superior in Europe to what we have here?”
“Everything? No;” said Harry, laughing. But you would seem to think a man dissatisfied, doctor, if he did not, on the contrary, proclaim that everything is immeasurably better in this country than in any other on the globe. Now, confess, is not that your standard of patriotism?”
“Ah, you are shifting your ground, young gentleman. But we shall bring you to the point presently. Now tell us honestly, were you not disappointed with the looks of things when you came back?”
“If by disappointed, you mean that many things as I see them now, strike me as very inferior to objects of the same description in Europe, I do not scruple to say they do. When I landed, I said to myself,
“‘The streets are narrow and the buildings mean; Did I, or fancy, have them broad and clean?'”
{George Crabbe (English poet, 1754-1832), “Posthumous Tales: Tale VI–The Farewell and Return”, Part II, lines 79-80}
“I feared so!” and the doctor looked much as a pious Mahometan might be supposed to do, if he were to see a Frank seize the Grand Turk by the beard. “I should have thought better of you,” he added.
{“Frank” = a European Christian; “Grand Turk” = Ottoman Emperor}
“My dear sir,” said Harry, laughing, “how could I help it! I must defend myself from any desire to be disappointed, I assure you. On the contrary, I wish very sincerely that everything in my native country were as good as possible in its way; that the architecture of the public buildings were of the noblest kind; the private houses the most pleasant and convenient; the streets the best paved, and best lighted in the world. But I don’t conceive that the way to bring this about is to maintain le pistolet a la gorge, that perfection has already been attained in all these particulars. To speak frankly, it strikes me as the height of puerility to wish to deceive oneself upon such subjects. On the contrary, I think it is the duty of every man, so far as he has the opportunity, to aim at correct notions on everything within his reach.”
{“le pistolet a la gorge” = the pistol to the throat (French)}
“Well,” remarked the doctor, “you only confirm me in my opinion. I shall be more unwilling than ever to let Ben go; since even you, Harry Hazlehurst, who are a good deal better than most young men, confess the harm travelling has done you.”
“But, my dear sir, I confess no such thing. I’m conscious that travelling has been a great benefit to me in many ways. I shall be a happier and better man for what I have seen, all my life, I trust, since many of my opinions are built on a better foundation than they were before.”
“If I were you, I would not let him say so, Miss Elinor. His friends won’t like to hear it; and I, for one, am very sorry that you are not as good an American as I took you for.”
“It is quite a new idea to me, doctor,” said Hazlehurst, “that mental blindness and vanity are necessary parts of the American character. We, who claim to be so enlightened! I should be sorry to be convinced that your view is correct. I have always believed that true patriotism consisted in serving one’s country, not in serving oneself by flattering one’s countrymen. I must give my testimony on these subjects, when called for, as well as on any other, honestly, and to the best of my ability.”
“Do you know, doctor,” said Elinor, “poor Harry has had to fight several battles on this subject already. Mrs. Bernard attacked him the other evening, because he said the mountains in Switzerland were higher than the White Mountains. Now we have only to look in a geography to see that they are so.”
“But one don’t like to hear such things, Miss Elinor.”
“Mrs. Bernard asked him if he had seen anything finer than the White Mountains; what could he say! It seems to me just as possible for a man to love his country, and see faults in it, as it does for him to love his wife and children, without believing them to be the most perfect specimens of the human family, in body and mind, that ever existed. You will allow that a man may be a very good and kind husband and father, without maintaining everywhere that his wife and daughters surpass all their sex, in every possible particular?”
“You will not, surely, deny, doctor,” said Hazlehurst, “that it is reasonable to suppose that Europe possesses some advantages of an advanced state of civilization, that we have not yet attained to? We have done much for a young people, but we have the means of doing much more; and it will be our own fault if we don’t improve.”
“We shall improve, I dare say.”
“Do you expect us to go beyond perfection, then?”
“I can’t see the use of talking about disagreeable subjects.”
“But even the most disagreeable truths have their uses.”
“That may be; and yet I believe you would have been happier if you had staid at home. While he was away from you, Miss Elinor, I am afraid he learned some of those disagreeable truths which it would have been better for him not to have discovered.”
Harry stooped to pick up a glove, and remained silent for a moment.
Shortly after, supper was announced; and, although the coachman was not quite as much at home in the pantry as in the stable, yet everything was very successfully managed.
“It is really mortifying to hear a man like Dr. Van Horne, fancy it patriotic to foster conceited ignorance and childish vanity, on all national subjects,” exclaimed Harry, as he took his seat in the carriage, after handing the ladies in. “And that is not the worst of it; for, of course, if respectable, independent men talk in that tone, there will be no end to the fulsome, nauseating, vulgar flatteries that will be poured upon us by those whose interest it is to flatter!”
“I heard part of your conversation, and, I must confess, the doctor did not show his usual good sense,” observed Miss Agnes.
“You are really quite indignant against the doctor,” said Elinor.
“Not only against him, but against all who are willing, like him, to encourage such a miserable perversion of truth. Believe them, and you make patriotism anything, and everything, but a virtue.”
CHAPTER XIII.
“Why, how now, count? Wherefore are you so sad?” SHAKSPEARE. {sic–this is the Cooper family’s usual spelling of the name}
{William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing”, II.i.289}
“WELL, Jenny, you are going to leave us to-day, it seems,” said Mr. Wyllys, the next morning, at breakfast. “I am sorry for it; but, I suppose your mother has a better right to you than we have.”
“I promised mamma I would not stay after to-day, sir. Aunt Agnes is to carry me over to Longbridge, before dinner.”
“You must come back again, as often as you can, child. It always seems to me, that Harry and you belong here, as much as you do anywhere else. How long do you suppose your mother will stay at Longbridge?”
“We are going to New York next week. Father wishes to be in Charleston early in October.”
“I can’t bear to think of your going so soon. If you are once in Carolina, I suppose, we shan’t see you again until next June; but, mind, you are to pass all next summer with us,” said Elinor.
“That is to say, Nelly, if she has no more important engagement,” added Mr. Wyllys, smiling.
“Even a very important engagement need not interfere,” said Miss Agnes. “We shall be very happy, Jane, to see any Charleston friend you may see fit to bring with you.”
“I don’t think there is the least danger that any Charleston friend will come with me;” said Jane, blushing a little.
“Have you selected a friend from some other place, Jenny?” asked her uncle.
“Oh, no, sir!” was the answer; but her colour continued to rise, and she appeared a little uneasy. As for Harry, he had taken no part in the conversation, but seemed very busy with his knife and fork.
“Pray remember, Jane,” said Elinor, “I am to have timely notice of a wedding, in my capacity of bridesmaid.”
“Who knows, Nelly, but you may call upon Jane first. You have fixed upon your friend, I take it; eh, Harry?”
“I hope so;” Hazlehurst replied, in a low voice, and he drank off a cup of hot coffee with such rapidity, that Miss Wyllys looked at him with astonishment.
Elinor made no answer, for she was already at the other end of the room, talking gaily to her birds.
As Harry rose from table and walked into the next room, he tried to feel very glad that Jane was to leave them that day; he sat down, and took up a paper; but, instead of reading it, silently followed a train of thought by no means agreeable.
In the course of the morning, according to the arrangement which had been made, Harry drove the ladies to Longbridge. He thought he had never passed a more unpleasant morning in his life. He felt relieved when Elinor, instead of taking a seat with him, chose one inside, with her aunt and Jane; though his heart smote him whenever her sweet, cheerful voice fell upon his ear. He tried to believe, however, that it was in spite of himself he had been captivated by June’s beauty. Was he not, at that very moment, carrying her, at full speed, towards her father’s, and doing his best to hope that they should meet but once or twice again, for months to come? Under such circumstances, was not a man in love to be pitied? For some weeks, Hazlehurst had not been able to conceal from himself, that if he occupied the position of the lover of Elinor, he felt like the lover of Jane.
As he drove on, in moody silence, the party in the carriage at length remarked, that he had not joined in their conversation at all.
“Harry does not talk so much as he used to;” observed Miss Wyllys; “don’t you think he has grown silent, Jane?”
“Perhaps he has,” she replied; “but it never struck me, before.”
“Do you hear, Harry?” said Elinor; “Aunt Agnes thinks the air of Paris has made you silent. It ought surely to have had a very different effect.”
“This detestable road requires all a man’s attention to keep out of the ruts;” he replied. “I wish we had gone the other way.”
“If Aunt Agnes has no objection, we can come back by the river road,” said Elinor. “But your coachmanship is so good, you have carried us along very smoothly; if the road is bad, we have not felt it.”
Harry muttered something about holes and ruts, which was not heard very distinctly.
“Out of humour, too; very unusual!” thought Miss Agnes. There was a something unnatural in his manner, which began to give her a little uneasiness; for she saw no good way of accounting for it.
The ladies were driven to the door of the Bellevue Hotel, where the Grahams had rooms. They found several visiters with Mrs. Graham, among whom, the most conspicuous, and the least agreeable, were Mrs. Hilson and her sister, both redolent of Broadway, elegant and fashionable in the extreme; looking, it is true, very pretty, but talking, as usual, very absurdly.
Mrs. Graham had scarcely kissed her daughter, before Mrs. Hilson gave Elinor an important piece of information.
“I am so delighted, Miss Wyllys, to hear this good news–“
“My cousins’ return, do you mean? Did you not know they had arrived?”
“Oh, yes; we heard that, of course, last week; but I allude to this morning’s good news, which I have just heard from this fascinating little creature;” added the lady, catching one of Mrs. Graham’s younger children, as it slipped past her.
Elinor looked surprised, when Mrs. Hilson condescended to explain.
“Mrs. Graham is to pass the winter in New York, I hear.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Elinor, turning with joyful eagerness towards Mrs. Graham. “Are you really going to stay so near us?”
Mrs. Graham was thus obliged to inform her friends of the change in her plans; she would, of course, have preferred waiting until alone with Miss Agnes and Elinor, to do so; but, Mrs. Hilson’s officiousness obliged her to say something immediately. One, of her children, a little boy, had been suffering with some disease of the spine, during the last year, and a consultation of physicians, held the day before, in New York, had decided that a sea-voyage, or a long journey, was more than the poor little fellow could bear, in the present state of his health, as he had been much worse, during the last three months, since the Grahams had been at Longbridge. It was therefore settled that Mrs. Graham, Jane, and the younger children, were to remain in New York, while the boy was under the care of Dr. S—–, in whom his parents had great confidence. Mr. Graham and his oldest boy were to pass part of the winter on their plantation, and then return to his family.
Miss Wyllys and Elinor, though regretting the cause, were, of course, much pleased with this arrangement; Jane, too, appeared perfectly satisfied.
“I should not be surprised, Miss Graham,” continued Mrs. Hilson, “if some of your New York admirers had bribed Dr. S—–; I’m sure, we are very much obliged to him for having detained you. I hope you will be somewhere near us, in the city. Emmeline is to pass part of the winter with me; and, I dare say, you will be very intimate. I wish, Mrs. Graham we could persuade you to come to our boarding-house. Mrs. Stone is really a fascinating lady, herself; and she always manages to have a charming clique at her house.–Quite exclusive, I assure you.”
“I hope to find more private lodgings–I have too many little people for a boarding-house.”
“Not at all. Mrs. Stone could give you an excellent nursery. She has several lovely little darlings, herself. Her little Algernon would make a very good beau for your youngest little Miss. What do you say, my dear,” catching the child again; “won’t you set your cap for Algernon?”
The little girl opened her large, dark eyes without answering. Mrs. Hilson, and her sister now rose to take leave of Mrs. Graham, repeating, however, before they went, the invitation they had already given, to a ball for the next week. It was to be a house-warming, and a grand affair. The ladies then flitted away on tip-toe.
The door had scarcely closed behind them, before Mrs. George Wyllys, who had been sitting as far from them as possible, began to exclaim upon the absurdity of the whole Hubbard family.
“They are really intolerable, Agnes;” she said to her sister-in-law. “They attack me upon all occasions. They brought Mrs. Bibbs and Mrs. Tibbs to see me, and joined me in the street, yesterday: they are almost enough to drive me away from Longbridge. I can’t imagine what makes them so attentive to me–plain, sober body, as I am–what can they aim at?”
“They aim at universal fascination, I suppose;” said Elinor, laughing.
“And must we really go to this house-warming?” asked Mrs. Wyllys.
“Elinor and I have already accepted the invitation;” said Miss Agnes. “My father wished us to go, for he really has a great respect for Mr. Hubbard.”
“Well, I can’t say that the gentlemen strike me as so much superior to the ladies of the family. ‘Uncle Josie’ seems to admire his daughter’s nonsense; and ‘Uncle Dozie’ never opens his lips.”
“There is not a shade of fascination about them, however,” said Elinor.
“I grant you that,” said Mrs. Wyllys, smiling. “I shall decline the invitation, though, I think.”
“That you can do very easily;” said Miss Agnes.
The ladies then followed Mrs. Graham to an adjoining room, to see the little invalid, and talk over the new arrangement for the winter.
It was fortunate for Harry, that they had left the drawing-room before he entered it; for he no sooner appeared at the door, than the same little chatter-box, who had betrayed the change in her mother’s plans to Mrs. Hilson, ran up to him to tell the great news that they were not going back to Charleston, but were to stay in New York all winter, ‘mamma, and Jane, and all of them, except papa and Edward.’ The varying expression of surprise, pleasure, and distress, that passed over Hazlehurst’s face, as he received the intelligence, would have astonished and perplexed Miss Agnes, had she seen it. He had depended upon Jane’s absence to lighten the course which he felt it was his duty to pursue; and now she was to be in New York! Of course, she would be half her time with Elinor, as usual. And, if he had already found it so difficult, since they had all been together, to conceal the true state of his feelings, how should he succeed in persevering in the same task for months?
He determined, at least, to leave Longbridge, for a time, and remain in Philadelphia, until the Grahams were settled in New York.
The same evening, as the family at Wyllys-Roof, and himself, were sitting together, he announced his intention.
“Can I do anything for you, in Philadelphia, Elinor?” he asked; “I shall have to go to town, to-morrow, and may be detained a week or ten days.”
“Are you really going to town?–I did not know you were thinking of it. I wish I had known it this morning, for I am very much in want of worsteds for the chair-pattern Jane brought me; but, unfortunately, I left it at Aunt Wyllys’s. Did you say you were going to-morrow?”
“Yes, I must be off in the morning.”
“Then I must give up my pattern, for the present.”
“Is there nothing else I can do for you?”
“Nothing, thank you–unless you bring some new books; which, we will leave to your taste, to choose.”
“Is not this rather a sudden move, Harry?” said Mr. Wyllys, who had just finished a game of chess with Miss Agnes. “I haven’t heard you mention it before?”
“I intended to put it off; sir; but, on thinking the matter over, I find I had better go at once.”
“I wish you would look about you a little, for lodgings for us; it is time we secured them. I suppose, you will want us to go to town early, this winter, Nelly, won’t you? It will not do for Master Harry to be wasting half his time here, after he has once taken seriously to law; you know he will have two mistresses to wait upon, this winter.”
“It is to be hoped they will not interfere with each other,” said Miss Agnes, smiling.
“That is what they generally do, my dear. By-the-bye, Nelly, I suppose Louisa will have Jane in Philadelphia, with her, part of the winter.”
“Yes, sir, after Christmas; it is already settled, much to my joy.”
“So much the better!” said her grandfather.
“So much the worse!” thought Hazlehurst.
“Your Paris party will be all together again, Harry?” continued Mr. Wyllys.
“Yes, sir;” was Hazlehurst’s laconic reply. ‘I wish I could forget it,’ thought he. So much had he been annoyed, throughout the day, that he soon after took up a candle, and, wishing the family good-night, went to his own room.
“I am afraid Harry is not well,” said Miss Wyllys, after he had left them. “He seems out of spirits.”
Elinor looked up from her work.
“Now you speak of it,” replied Mr. Wyllys, “I think he does seem rather out of sorts.”
Nothing more was said on the subject; but some unpleasant thoughts suggested themselves to Miss Wyllys; for, during the last day or two, Hazlehurst’s manner had repeatedly struck her as unnatural, and she feared that something weighed upon his mind. As for Elinor, her nature was as far as possible from being suspicious; and, least of all, would she have mistrusted Harry; she merely reproached herself for having laughed once or twice, during the day, at his expense, when he had been very absent. She remembered he seemed a little annoyed, at the time, though he never used to mind such things–‘I am afraid he thought it unkind, if he was not well,’ she said to herself, and determined to make amends, the next morning, by presiding at his early breakfast, before he set out.
CHAPTER XIV.
“What loud uproar, bursts from that door?” COLERIDGE.
{Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English poet, 1772-1834), “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (VII) line 592}
WE shall follow the example of the good people of Longbridge, its party-going inhabitants, at least, and discard, for the moment, all other topics, in order to give due justice to the expected ball at the Hubbards. It was understood that this house-warming was to be the most brilliant affair, of its kind, that had taken place, in the neighbourhood, within the memory of man. Mrs. Hilson and Miss Emmeline Hubbard had staked their reputations, for elegance and fashion, upon the occasion. The list of invitations was larger than any yet issued at Longbridge, and all the preparations were on a proportionate scale of grandeur.
About ten days before the eventful evening, Mrs. Hilson and Miss Emmeline were closeted with their intimate friends, Mrs. Bibbs and Mrs. Tibbs, engaged in drawing up a plan of operations for the occasion. Probably the ‘city-lady,’ as Mrs. Hilson always called herself, had invited the two friends as counsellors, more with a view of astonishing them by a display of her own views of magnificence, than from any idea that their suggestions would be of importance.
Miss Emmeline was seated, pencil in hand, with several sheets of paper before her, all ready, to take notes of the directions as they were settled. Mrs. Bibbs and Mrs. Tibbs were placed on a sofa; and Mrs. Hilson threw herself into a rocking-chair.
“In the first place, Emmeline,” said the ‘city-lady,’ “we must have boned turkey: put down boned turkey.”
“I thought you were going to make out the list of invitations first,” said the sister.
“Just put down the boned turkey, for that is absolutely necessary; and then we can run over the names.”
Miss Emmeline wrote as she was directed. A long list of names was then put down; there had already been a private family meeting upon the subject, at which, after many endeavours of Mrs. Hilson to unite the two advantages of extreme exclusiveism, and the largest number of invitations ever heard of at Longbridge, Mr. Hubbard had decided the matter by insisting that his daughters should ask every person who had ever been a guest at their house before, and all those from whom they themselves had accepted invitations.
“Don’t talk to me of fashionable people, and exclusives and inclusives–I choose to have all my old neighbours, do you hear, girls, and any one else you please.”
This was the only point upon which their father insisted; and as he left the expense of the arrangements entirely to themselves, the ladies thought it most prudent not to argue the matter. Instead, therefore, of aiming at having their party very select, it was now agreed that it should be very general.
“It will be a regular mob,” said Mrs. Hilson, as she finished reading to her sister scraps of lists of which her lap was full; “but with so large a visiting circle as ours, it was not to be avoided, I suppose. Have you put down the boned turkey, Emmeline? that at least will give to the entertainment an aristocratic character, at once.”
“Yes, to be sure, here it is,” said Emmeline, taking up another sheet of paper. “We must have boned turkey, of course.”
Now it so happened that neither Mrs. Bibbs nor Mrs. Tibbs, though such fascinating ladies, had ever seen, tasted, or heard of boned turkey before. But, of course, they did not confess such shameful ignorance. Boned turkey had never yet figured at a party at Longbridge. We say figured at a party, and we speak advisedly, as all must know who are aware of the all-important position occupied at an American party by the refreshments, in the opinion of both host and guests. The brilliancy of the lights, the excellence of the music, the wit and gallantry of the gentlemen, the grace and beauty of the ladies–would be of no avail in giving fame to a party if the refreshments were not as abundant, and as varied as possible. It is true these good things are generally excellent in their way, which is probably one reason why they receive so much attention. The highest distinction to be attained in these matters is the introduction of some new delicacy; next to this, is the honour of being one of the first to follow so brilliant an example; but, of course, those unfortunate individuals who have neglected to procure the favourite dainty of the season, after it has once appeared on fashionable tables, lose all claim to honourable mention, and sink beneath notice. In this way, each dish has its day; a year or two since, Charlotte Russe was indispensable at an entertainment; last winter Bombes were in high request; and at the period of the Hubbard house-warming, Boned Turkey had received the place of honour on the New York supper-tables. People could neither flirt nor dance, they could talk neither pure nonsense, nor pure speculation, without the Boned Turkey in perspective. The fashion had indeed spread so far, that it had at last reached what Mrs. Hilson generally called her clique.
“Pa thinks we shall have some difficulty in getting boned turkey at this season; it is rather early; but I am determined to have it if money can procure it. You know I am very ambitious, Mrs. Tibbs–I am not easily satisfied.”
Mrs. Tibbs, a pretty little woman with light hair, wearing a fashionable lilac muslin, assented, of course.
“Taking for granted then, that we have the boned turkey, what shall we put down next?” asked Miss Emmeline. “Terrapin-soup, pickled-oysters, lobsters, chicken-salad, and anything in the way of game that can be found in the market; do you think that will do for the substantial dishes, Mrs. Bibbs?”
Mrs. Bibbs, a pretty little woman with black hair, wearing a fashionable green muslin, assented, of course.
“I think that will do, Emmeline,” said Mrs. Hilson; “a large supply of each, you know. By-the-bye we must have four dishes of boned turkey; nothing so mean as to have a small quantity.”
Then followed a long list of lighter delicacies; gallons of ice-cream with every possible variety of flavour; flour and eggs, cream and sugar, prepared in every way known to New York confectioners. Kisses and Mottoes were insisted upon. Then came the fruits, beginning with peaches and grapes, and concluding with bananas and other tropical productions, until at length even Mrs. Hilson’s “ambition” was thus far satisfied.
{“Kisses and Mottoes” = wrapped candies enclosing short witty verses or “mottoes”–ancestors of the “fortune cookie”}
“I think our set-out will have quite an aristocratic appearance, Emmeline; including, of course, the boned turkey. Then we must have colored candles, they are so much more tasty–all green and pink. Alonzo will secure the orchestra, the best in the city; —–‘s band. We must have two dressing-rooms in the third story, one for the gentlemen, one for the ladies–and a little fainting-room besides; the small east room will do for that–we can put in it the easy-chair, with the white batiste cover I brought over from the city, with a pitcher of iced-water, and restoratives, all ready. It is always best, Mrs. Bibbs, to have a pretty little fainting-room prepared beforehand–it makes the thing more complete.”
The lady in the green muslin agreed entirely with Mrs. Hilson; she thought it would be unpardonable not to have a fainting-room.
“The third story will be reserved for the dressing-rooms, the second entirely devoted to the supper and refreshments, and the first floor given up to the dancers and promenaders. I declare I shan’t know how to look if we can’t procure the boned turkey.”
The lady in the lilac muslin agreed that when everything else was so genteel, it would be unfortunate indeed to fail in the boned turkey.
The disposition of the furniture, the variety of lemonades, &c., was then settled, as well as other minor matters, when the four ladies sat down to write the invitations on the very elegant and fanciful note-paper prepared for the occasion.
“The first thing I shall do, Emmeline, will be to write a letter expressly to Alonzo, to insist upon the confectioner’s procuring the boned turkey.”
We shall pass over the labours of the ensuing week, devoted to the execution of what had been planned. Various were the rumours floating about Longbridge in the interval; it was asserted by some persons that a steamboat was to bring to Longbridge all the fashionable people in New York; that it was to be a sort of “Mass-Meeting” of the “Aristocracy.” By others, all the fiddlers in New York and Philadelphia were said to be engaged. In fact, however, nothing was really known about the matter. Mrs. Bibbs and Mrs. Tibbs had confided all the details to a score of friends only, and every one of these had, as usual, spread abroad a different version of the story. We have it, however, on the best authority, that every day that week a letter in Mrs. Hilson’s handwriting, directed to the most fashionable cook and confectioner in New York, passed through the Longbridge post-office, and we happen to know that they were all written upon the negotiation for the boned turkey, which at that season it was not easy to procure in perfection.
The eventful evening arrived at length. The fanciful note-papers had all reached their destination, the pink and green candles were lighted, the fainting-room was prepared, the kisses and mottoes had arrived, and though last, surely not least, four dishes of boned turkey were already on the supper-table. Mrs. Bibbs and Mrs. Tibbs had gone the rounds with the two ladies of the house, and admired everything, after which they returned to the drawing-room. Mrs. Bibbs in blue, and Mrs. Tibbs in pink, were placed in full array on a sofa. Mrs. Hilson and Miss Emmeline stationed themselves in a curtseying position, awaiting their guests. Mr. and Mrs. Clapp, with Miss Patsey and Charlie, were the first to arrive. Our friend, Patsey, looked pleasant, good-natured, and neatly dressed, as usual; the silk she wore was indeed the handsomest thing of the kind she had ever owned–it was a present from Uncle Josie, who had insisted upon her coming to his house-warming. Patsey’s toilette, however, though so much more elegant than usual, looked like plainness and simplicity itself, compared with the gauzes and flowers, the laces and ribbons of Mrs. Tibbs and Mrs. Bibbs, who were sitting on the sofa beside her. Presently, a thin, dark, sober-looking young man walked in at a side-door; it was Alonzo, Mrs. Hilson’s husband. Honest, warm-hearted Mr. Hubbard soon followed, looking as usual, in a very good humour, and much pleased with the holiday he had provided for his daughters, and the satisfaction of seeing all his old friends in his new house, which he had prepared for himself. If ever there was a man who spoilt his children, it was Mr. Joseph Hubbard. Had he had sons, it might possibly have been different; but his wife had been a very silly, very pretty, very frivolous woman; the daughters resembled her in every respect, and Mr. Hubbard seemed to have adopted the opinion that women were never otherwise than silly and frivolous. He loved his daughters, laughed at their nonsense, was indulgent to their folly, and let them do precisely as they pleased; which, as he had made a fortune, it was in his power to do. As for Uncle Dozie, the bacheler {sic} brother, who had lived all his life with Mr. Joseph Hubbard, he was already in the drawing-room, seated in a corner, with folded arms, taking a nap. It was singular what a talent for napping this old gentleman possessed; he had been known to doze over a new book, pronounced by the papers “thrillingly interesting,” and “intensely exciting;” he has slept during a political speech, reported as one continued stream of enchaining eloquence, delivered amid thunders of applause; and now, under the blaze of astral lamps, and pink and green candles, while the musicians were tuning their fiddles, and producing all sorts of discordant sounds, he was dozing as quietly as if in his own rocking-chair. Uncle Dozie seldom talked when he could help it; the chief business and pleasure of his life consisted in superintending his brother’s vegetable-garden; he had never been known to take a nap among his beets and cabbages, which he seemed to admire as much. as he did his nieces. The vegetables, indeed, engrossed so much of his care and attention, that three times in the course of his life, he had lost by carelessness a comfortable little independence which his brother had made for him.
{“astral lamp” = a variety of Argand lamp (the brightest oil lamp of the period) especially designed to cast its light downward}
The company began to pour in. Mrs. Taylor and the talkative old friend were among the earliest, and took their seats on the sofa, near Miss Patsey, Mrs. Bibbs, and Mrs. Tibbs. Adeline, with the Saratoga fashionables, soon followed; having remained longer in the dressing-room, in order to wait until each could appear with a beau to lean on. The Longbridge elite arrived in large numbers; Uncle Dozie woke up, and Uncle Josie shook hands as his friends wished him many happy years in his new house. Miss Emmeline and Mrs. Hilson flitted hither and thither; while the dark and sober-looking Alonzo occasionally bent his head gently on one side, to receive some private communications and directions from his more elegant moiety. No one was received by the ladies of the house with more fascinating smiles, than a tall, slim Englishman, with a very bushy head of hair, who had made Mrs. Hilson’s acquaintance at their boarding-house not long since, and being tired of occupying a third or fourth-rate position in his own country, was now determined to show off what he thought airs of the first water, in this. He was just the attendant in whom Mrs. Hilson gloried.
“I think the West-End is fully represented here, this evening, Emmeline,” said the fair lady as she tripped past her sister, followed by Captain Kockney, after the rooms were uncomfortably full.
“Some very pretty women ‘ere, Mrs. ‘Ilson,” observed Captain Kockney; “that’s really a lovely creature just come in, and what a piece of ugliness it is alongside of her.”
“Miss Graham? Yes, she is our great beauty. Shall I introduce you?”
“Not now, for pity’s sake; wait till that ugly face has moved out of sight.”
“Do you think Miss Wyllys so very ugly? Perhaps she is; but she is one of our country neighbours, and I have seen her so frequently that I am accustomed to her appearance–indeed we are quite intimate. When one knows her, her conversation is excessively delightful; though she wants more association with city-life to appear to advantage.”
“Now, pray don’t introduce me there, I beg. I saw too many ugly women the last season I was at ‘ome. Our colonel had three daughters, ‘orrid frights, but of course we had to do the civil by them. It almost tempted me to sell out; they were parvenues, too–that made the matter worse, you know.”
{“parvenues” = upstarts (French)}
“Oh, yes, I hate parvenoos; I am thoroughly aristocratic in my nature. Indeed, it is a great misfortune for me that I am so, one is obliged, in this country, to come so often in contact with plebeians! I am afraid you must suffer from the same cause, while travelling in the United States.”
“What, from the plebeians? Oh, I made up my mind to that before I came, you know; I believe I shall enjoy the change for a time. One doesn’t expect anything else from you Yankees; and then I had a surfeit of aristocracy in London, the last season. We had half-a-dozen crowned heads there; and first one met them everywhere in town, you know, and then at every country-house.”
“How delightful it must be to live surrounded by royalty in that way!”
“There you’re quite out. It’s a great bore; one has to mind their p’s and q’s at court, you know–I never go to Windsor if I can help, it.”
“Well, I should never tire of a court–I am thoroughly patrician in my disposition. I have a good right to such tastes, Captain Kockney, for I have a great deal of noble blood in my veins.”
“Now, really! what family do you belong to?”
“The duke of Percy; a noble family of Scotland. Pa’s name is Joseph P. Hubbard. Don’t you pity people who have no nobility in their families?”
“‘Pon my soul, I don’t know how a man feels under such circumstances. It’s a queer sensation, I dare say.”
“Dr. Van Horne,” continued Mrs. Hilson, to a young man who came up to make his bow to her, “I have a great mind to ask a favour of you. Will you undertake to bleed me?”
“I should be sorry if you required my services in that way, Mrs. Hilson.”
“Ah, but it would be a real obligation; I want to get rid of all but my Percy blood. Perhaps you don’t know that our family is distinguished in its descent?”
“From ‘old Mother Hubbard,'” thought young Van Horne; but he merely bowed.
“Yes, our ancestors were dukes of Percy, who were beheaded in Scotland for being faithful to their king. It is very possible we might claim the title of a Scotch Peer.” Mrs. Hilson had read too many English novels, not to have a supply of such phrases at command. “If you could only find the right vein, I would insist upon your taking away all but my patrician blood.”
“Would not the operation leave you too perfect, Mrs. Hilson?”
“Perhaps it might make me vain. But it could scarcely unfit me more for living in a republic. How I wish we were governed by a despot!–don’t you?”
“Not in the least,”–‘but I wish you were,’ the young man added, to himself, as he moved away towards Jane and Elinor, who were in a corner talking to his sisters. “All the fools in this country are not travelled fools, as I wish my father would remember,” he continued, as he edged his way through the crowd.
“And he that aye has lived free
May not well know the misery,
The wrath, the strife, the hate, and all, That’s compassed in the name of thrall.”
{I have not identified this verse}
“You have mustered quite a pretty set of little plebeians ‘ere to-night. Now, that’s quite a nice-looking little creature standing by the door,” continued Captain Kockney; “what do you call her?”
“Her name is Taylor–Adeline Taylor; they belong to the aristocracy too; shall I introduce you?”
“Is she married? If she is, I’ve no objections; but if she isn’t, I had rather not. It’s such a bore, you know, talking to girls–bread-and-butter misses!”
“How ungallant you are!”
“Ungallant! Why? I suppose you know it’s a settled thing that none of US talk to girls in society. Most of them are so milk-and-water, and the rest are so deep, they’re always fancying a man means something. Why, last spring we cut Lord Adolphus Fitz Flummery, of OURS, just because he made a fool of himself, dangling after the girls.”
“But don’t gentlemen ever speak to an unmarried lady in England?”
“The saps do–but not your knowing ones. We make an exception though, in favour of a regular beauty, such as that little girl on the other side of the room; that Thomson girl, didn’t you call her?”
“Miss Graham–you are difficult to please if nothing else will suit you. But of course it is natural for aristocratic minds to be fastidious.”
“To be sure it is, that’s what makes us English aristocrats so exclusive. If that little Graham girl comes in our way though, I’ve no objection to making her acquaintance. And if you have got a great fortune here to-night, I’ll make an exception for her–you may introduce me. Is there such a thing as an heiress in the room?”
“An heiress? No, I believe not–but Miss Taylor is quite a fortune.”
“Is she? Well then, you may introduce me there too. We have to do the civil to the rich girls, you know; because after a while most of us are driven into matrimony. That’s the governor, I take it, near the door.”
“The governor? Oh, no, our governor does not live at Longbridge.”
“Doesn’t he? Well, I thought you introduced him just now as the governor, and I fancied some one called him ‘Ubbard; that’s the governor’s name, isn’t it?”
“No, indeed. That’s Pa you are speaking of.”
“Just so–that is what I said. You call your paternities PA, do you?–we always call the old fellows governors, in England.”
“Do you call your father Gov. Kockney? I did not know that governor was an English title; it sounds very plebeian in my ears.”
“Now, what DO you mean? ha! ha!–you are delightful. You put me in mind of a good scene at the drawing-room, last June. Though, perhaps, you don’t know what the drawing-room is?”
“Oh, yes; I know that it means Court. My tastes are so exclusive, that I may say I have lived in English High-Life from the time I married, and became intimate with Mrs. Bagman. I feel quite at home in such scenes, for I read every novel that comes out with Lords and Ladies in it. What were you going to tell me about Court?”
The story was interrupted by Miss Hubbard, who tripped across the room to carry her sister off with her.
“Now you are not going, I hope? Why not stay ‘ere; I am sure this sofa is the most comfortable thing in the room.”
“I must go to receive some friends of mine, come over expressly from the city.”
“Pray, keep me clear of the cits! But now, if you will go, just leave me your bouquet as a a consolation. Thank you.–Oh, yes, I’ll take good care of it.”
“I hope you will, for it’s a ten dollar bouquet, and I’m very proud of it. You must not steal a single flower, mind.”
“Mustn’t I?–Do you dare me?” and the agreeable Captain began to pull out several flowers. Mrs. Hilson, however, was hurried away.
Mr. Taylor, Mr. Hubbard, and Alonzo moved towards the sofa where she had been sitting.
“Do you think that Stewart will be chosen President of the Franklin Insurance?” inquired Mr. Hubbard.
“I think not, sir–he rather mismanaged the affairs of the Hoboken Bank. Lippincott will be the President, I take it. He has magnificent talents for business. You know he has purchased the thirty lots in 50th street, that were sold at auction, yesterday.”
“A good purchase, I should say.”
“How’s the Hoboken stock now?” inquired Alonzo. A murmuring about ‘five per cent.’–‘six per cent.’–‘par’–‘premium,’ followed, and was only interrupted by the approach of young Van Horne and Elinor.
“I beg your pardon, Miss Wyllys,” said Mr. Hubbard, making room for her. “Oh, yes, Mr. Van Horne, here is a place for you, and another couple besides. Whom are you looking for?”
“Charles Hubbard, sir; I want him for a vis-a-vis.”
“Charlie is already placed, I see; but here is a gentleman; perhaps you would like to dance, sir?”–addressing Captain Kockney, who was still in possession of the sofa and the flowers. “I hope my daughter has introduced you to some of the young ladies.”
“Now, really; if I am to dance, I prefer Mrs. ‘Ilson.”
And, accordingly, the Captain, by no means sorry to be forced to dance, rose with a victim-like look, half strode, half sidled towards Mrs. Hilson, and putting his elbow in her face by way of an invitation, led her to the quadrille. The contrast between these two couples, placed opposite to each other, was striking, and yet common enough in a mixed ballroom. Captain Kockney was desperately nonchalant, his partner full of airs and graces; their conversation was silly, ignorant, and conceited, beyond the reach of imagination–such things must be heard to be believed. Young Van Horne was clever, and appeared to less advantage in dancing than in most things. Elinor the reader knows already; it was a pleasure to follow her as she moved about with the happy grace which belonged to her nature. Her partner, half in joke, half in earnest, was engaging her interest with his father in behalf of the visit to Europe. Elinor promised to do all in her power; and they chatted away cheerfully and gaily, for they were young and light-hearted; and yet, even in a ball-room, they meant what they said, and knew what they were talking about, for both were sensible and well educated. Jane and young Bernard were next to Mrs. Hilson; Adeline and Charlie Hubbard next to Elinor. Miss Taylor had declared that she would allow no one but herself to fill the place opposite to Jane, causing by her decision no little flirtation, and rattling merriment; but, of course, this was just what the young lady aimed at. These two pretty, thoughtless creatures, the belle and the beauty, held a middle position between Mrs. Hilson and Elinor. Frivolous as they were, there was more latent good about them, than could be found in the ‘city lady,’ who was one frothy compound of ignorant vanity, and vulgar affectation. The class she represented was fortunately as small in its extreme folly, as that to which Elinor belonged, in its simple excellence.
Any one, indifferent to dancing or speculation, seeking amusement as a looker-on, would have been struck, at Uncle Josie’s house-warming, with the generally feminine and pleasing appearance of the women; there were few faces, indeed, that could be called positively ugly. Then, again, one remarked, that puerile as the general tone might be, mixed as the company was, there were no traces whatever of coarseness, none of that bold vulgarity which is so revolting.
There was a certain proportion of elderly men collected on the occasion–they were seen, with a few exceptions, standing in knots, talking great speculations and little politics, and looking rather anxious for supper, and the boned turkey. Of the mothers and chaperons, who filled the sofas, as representatives of a half-forgotten custom, some were watching the flirtations, others looking on and enjoying the gaiety of the young people. Both fathers and mothers, however, were very decidedly in the minority, and, according to American principles, they allowed the majority undisputed sway. The young people, in general, held little communication with their elders, and amused themselves after their own fashion; the young ladies’ bouquets afforded a favourite subject for small-talk; they were all carefully analysed–not botanically, but according to the last edition of that elegant work, the Language of Flowers, which afforded, of course, a wide field for the exercise of gallantry and flirtation.
{Probably, Frederic Shoberl (1775-1853), “The Language of Flowers,” (numerous editions, some published by the Cooper family’s regular publisher in Philadelphia)–but there were many similar books on the “poetic meaning” of different flowers}
Among the dancers, the four young ladies we have pointed out were acknowledged the most conspicuous. According to Mrs. Tibbs and Mrs. Bibbs, Jane’s was the most beautiful face in the room, although there were two or three competitors for the title; Adeline was pronounced the most successful of the rival belles; Mrs. Hilson the most elegant and airy; Elinor the plainest of the gay troop. Probably, most of those who thought about the matter, would have decided as the Longbridge ladies did–although, on the point of Mrs. Hilson’s elegance, many would have protested. There was one person, at least, who followed Elinor’s graceful figure with partial interest; Miss Agnes found so much that was pleasing to her, in the fresh, youthful appearance of her adopted child–in the simple good-taste of her white dress–in the intelligence and character of her expression–in her engaging manner, that she forgot to regret her want of beauty; she no longer wondered, as she had sometimes done, that Harry should so early have appreciated her niece. Those who knew Elinor thoroughly, loved her for the excellence of her character; strangers neglected her for any pretty face at her side; but every one thrown in her society, must have acknowledged the charm of her manner. This pleasing manner, however, so frank, yet so feminine, so simple, yet so graceful, was only the natural result of her character, and her very want of beauty. She was never troubled by the fluttering hopes and fears of vanity; she never seemed to think of effect; when in society, her attention was always given in the simplest and most amiable way to others. Forgetful of self, she was a stranger to every forward affectation, to every awkwardness of mauvaise honte; her good sense, her gaiety, a sweet disposition, and an active mind were allowed full play, under no other restraints than those of a good education; those of principle, and those of youthful, womanly modesty. Such was Elinor in the eyes of her aunt, but it must not be supposed that this was the general opinion of Uncle Josie’s guests; by no means; many remarks were made upon Miss Wyllys’s being so decidedly plain; and even her dancing was thought inferior by some of the company to the more laboured graces of Mrs. Hilson, or the downright indifference of Adeline: as for Jane, she unfortunately never danced in time.
{“mauvaise honte” = bashfulness, false shame (French)}
At the proper moment supper was announced–the boned turkey appeared in full glory. “What is that?”–“Boned turkey”–“Shall I give you boned turkey?” “I’ll thank you for a little boned turkey”–were sounds heard in every direction. It was very evident the boned turkey was fully appreciated, and gave great satisfaction–thus putting the finishing touch to the pleasures of Uncle Josie’s house-warming. We must not forget to mention the mottoes, which were handed about in silver baskets, for, as usual, they caused many tender and witty speeches. This was a part of the entertainment in which Adeline delighted; Jane seemed quite satisfied with it, and Mrs. Hilson was in her element among these little bits of pink paper and sentiment.
Before the supper was more than half over, however, the rattling of spoons and plates, the requests for “boned turkey,” and the flirting over mottoes were suddenly interrupted, and everything hushed for a moment, by calls for a doctor! “Where is Dr. Van Horne?” “Have you seen Dr. A?” “There is Dr. B.”
“Alonzo, the fainting-room; remember,” said Mrs. Hilson.
But it proved to be none of the company who required a physician. A stranger, a sailor, some one said, who had been for the last week at a low tavern opposite, had been seized with a fit; Dr. Van Horne was soon found, and hastened to the relief of the sick man. The interruption was soon forgotten; the mottoes and boned turkey were again in demand. Dr. Van Horne did not return, however; his family went home without him; and Mrs. Clapp, on looking around for her husband, found that he also had disappeared.
“I saw Clapp going into the tavern last evening,” observed Uncle Josie. “Perhaps this poor fellow is some client of his; he may have gone to look after him.”
Mrs. Clapp was obliged to ask Uncle Dozie to accompany her home; and as he was no somnambulist, with all his napping, he carried his niece safely to her own door.
Miss Wyllys was one of those who left the house immediately after supper. Adeline and Jane ran up stairs before Elinor and herself–like the Siamese twins, each with an arm encircling the other’s waist. The close intimacy between Jane and Adeline continued to surprise Elinor. She began to think there must be something more than common, something of the importance of a mystery which drew them so often together, causing so many confidential meetings. Even when the two girls were in society, she could not but observe that Adeline often made some allusion, or whispered some remark that seemed both pleasing and embarrassing to Jane. Miss Taylor was evidently playing confidante, and occasionally Jane appeared to wish her less open and persevering in the affair. As for Mrs. Graham, she was too much occupied with the care of her younger children to pay much attention to her daughter’s intimacies. She rather disliked Adeline and all her family, and Mr. Graham had a real antipathy for Mr. Taylor; still Jane was allowed to do as other young girls about her, select whom she pleased for her associates. Mrs. Graham was one of those mothers who devote themselves with great assiduity to the care of their childrens’ {sic} bodies, their food and raiment, pains and aches–leaving all anxiety for their minds to the school-mistress, and their characters to themselves. With the eldest daughter this plan had succeeded very well; Louisa Graham was clever and well-disposed, and had taken of her own accord what is called a good turn; and Mr. Robert Hazlehurst had every reason to congratulate himself upon his choice of a wife. Mrs. Graham seemed to take it as a matter of course that the same system would succeed equally well with all her family. But Jane’s disposition was very different from her sister Louisa’s; she had no strength of character, and was easily led by those about her. The greatest fault in her disposition was thought by her family to be indolence; but Miss Wyllys sometimes wished that she had less selfishness, and more frankness.
{“Siamese twins” = Chang and Eng (1811-1874), born joined together in Thailand (Siam), of Chinese parents, who were exhibited in America for many years by P.T. Barnum; the condition was named after them}
Elinor was not a little startled at something which passed in Miss Hubbard’s dressing-room, between Jane and Miss Taylor, and which she accidentally overheard, before she was aware the conversation was confidential.