Afloat and Ashore Part 29

"You told us some of this, certainly; but, though you may have written 'all about' a _Major_ Merton, you _forgot_ to tell us 'about _all_ the Mertons. This is the first syllable I have ever had about a _Miss_ Merton. How is it, girls--did Miles speak of any one but the Major, in his letter?"

"Not a syllable to me, sir, of any young lady, I can a.s.sure you,"

replied Grace, laughing. "How was it to you, Lucy?"

"Of course he would not tell me that which he thought fit to conceal from his own sister," said Lucy, in a low voice.

"It is odd I should have forgotten to mention her," I cried, endeavouring to laugh it off. "Young men do not often forget to write about young ladies."

"This Miss Merton is young, then, brother?"

"About your own age, Grace."

"And handsome--and agreeable--and accomplished?"

"Something like yourself, my dear."

"But handsome, I take it for granted, Miles," observed Mr. Hardinge, "by the manner in which you have omitted to speak of her charms, in your letters!"

"Why sir, I think most persons--that is the world in general--I mean such as are not over-fastidious, would consider Miss Merton particularly handsome--agreeable in person and features, I would be understood to say."

"Oh! you are sufficiently explicit; everybody can understand you," added my laughing guardian, who had no more thought of getting me married to his own daughter, than to a German princess of a hundred and forty-five quarterings, if there are any such things; "some other time we will have the particulars of her eyes, hair, teeth, &c., &c."

"Oh! sir, you may save me the trouble, by looking at her yourself, to-morrow, since she and her father are both here."

"_Here!_" exclaimed all four in a breath; Lucy's extreme surprise extorting the monosyllable from her reserve, even a little louder than from the rest.

"Certainly, here; father, daughter, and servants; I dare say I omitted to speak of the servants in my letters, too; but a poor fellow who has a great deal to do, cannot think of everything in a minute. Major Merton has a touch of the liver complaint; and it would not do to leave him in a warm climate. So, no other chance offering, he is proceeding to England, by the way of America."

"And how long had you these people on board your s.h.i.+p, Miles?" Grace asked, a little gravely.

"Actually on board, with myself, about nine months, I should think; but including the time in London, at Canton, and on the island, I should call our acquaintance one of rather more than a year's standing."

"Long enough, certainly, to make a young lady sufficiently obvious to a young gentleman's memory, not to be forgotten in his letters."

After this pointed speech, there was a silence, which Mr. Hardinge broke by some questions about the pa.s.sage home from Canton. As it was getting cool on the Battery, however, we all moved away, proceeding to Mrs.

Bradfort's. This lady, as I afterwards discovered, was much attached to Lucy, and had insisted on giving her these opportunities of seeing the world. She was quite at her ease in her circ.u.mstances, and belonged to a circle a good deal superior to that into which Grace and myself could have claimed admission, in right of our own social position. Lucy had been well received as her relative, and as a clergyman's daughter; and Grace on her own account, as I afterwards learned. It would be attaching too much credit to Clawbonny, to say that either of the girls had not improved by this a.s.sociation; though it was scarcely possible to make Grace more feminine and lady-like than she had been made by nature.

The effect on Lucy was simply to put a little reserve on her native frankness, and st.u.r.dy honesty; though candour compels me to say, that mingling with the world, and, especially the world to which they had been introduced by Mrs. Bradfort, had certainly increased the native charm of manner that each possessed. I began to think Emily Merton so far from possessing any advantage over the two girls, might now improve a little herself, by a.s.sociating with them.

At the house, I had to tell my whole story, and to answer a mult.i.tude of questions. Not a syllable more was said about Miss Merton; and even Lucy had smiles to bestow and remarks to make, as before. When we got to the lights, where the girls could remove their shawls and hats, I made each of them stand before me, in order to ascertain how much time had altered them. Grace was now nineteen; and Lucy was only six months her junior.

The greatest change was in the latter. Her form had ripened into something as near as possible to girlish perfection. In this respect she had the advantage of Grace, who was a little too slight and delicate; whereas, Lucy, without any of the heaviness that so often accompanies a truly rounded person, and which was perhaps a slight defect in Emily Merton's figure, was without an angle of any sort, in her entire outline. Grace, always so handsome, and so intellectual in the expression of her countenance, had improved less in this respect, than Lucy, whose eyes had obtained a tenderness and feeling that rendered them, to me, even more attractive than those of my own dear sister. In a word, any man might have been proud, at finding two such admirable creatures interested in him, as interested, every look, smile, syllable, and gesture of these dear girls, denoted they were in me.

All this time, Neb had been overlooked. He had followed us to the house, however, and was already engaged in a dark-coloured flirtation with a certain Miss Chloe Clawbonny, his own second-cousin, in the kitchen; a lady who had attracted a portion of his admiration, before we sailed, and who had accompanied her young mistress to town. As soon as it was ascertained the fellow was below, Lucy, who was quite at home in her kinswoman's house, insisted on his being introduced. I saw by the indulgent smile of Mrs. Bradfort, that Lucy was not exceeding her conceded privileges, and Neb was ordered up, forthwith. Never was there a happier fellow than this 'n.i.g.g.e.r' appeared to be, on that occasion. He kept rolling his tarpaulin between his fingers, s.h.i.+fting his weight from leg to leg, and otherwise betraying the confusion of one questioned by his betters; for, in that day, a _negro_ was ready enough to allow he had his betters, and did not feel he was injured in so doing. At the present time, I am well aware that the word is proscribed even in the State's Prisons; everybody being just as good as everybody else; though some have the misfortune to be sentenced to hard labour, while others are permitted to go at large. As a matter of course, the selections made through the ballot-boxes, only go to prove that "one man is as good as another."

Our party did not separate until quite late. Suppers were eaten in 1802; and I was invited to sit down with the rest of the family, and a gay set we were. It was then the fas.h.i.+on to drink toasts; gentlemen giving ladies, and ladies gentlemen. The usage was singular, but very general; more especially in the better sort of houses. We men drank our wine, as a matter of course; while the ladies sipped theirs, in that pretty manner in which females moisten their lips, on such occasions. After a time, Mrs. Bradfort, who was very particular in the observance of forms, gaily called on Mr. Hardinge for his toast.

"My dear Mrs. Bradfort," said the divine, good-humouredly, "if it were not in your own house, and contrary to all rule to give a person who is present, I certainly should drink to yourself. Bless me, bless me, whom shall I give? I suppose I shall not be permitted to give our new Bishop, Dr. Moore?"

The cry of "No Bishop!" was even more unanimous than it is at this moment, among those who, having all their lives dissented from episcopal authority, fancy it an evidence of an increasing influence to join in a clamour made by their own voices; and this, moreover, on a subject that not one in a hundred among them has given himself the trouble even to skim. Our opposition--in which Mrs. Bradfort joined, by the way--was of a very different nature, however; proceeding from a desire to learn what lady Mr. Hardinge could possibly select, at such a moment. I never saw the old gentleman so confused before. He laughed, tried to dodge the appeal, fidgeted, and at last fairly blushed. All this proceeded, not from any preference for any particular individual of the s.e.x, but from natural diffidence, the perfect simplicity and nature of his character, which caused him to be abashed at even appearing to select a female for a toast. It was a beautiful picture of masculine truth and purity!

Still, we would not be put off; and the old gentleman, composing his countenance five or six times in vain efforts to reflect, then looking as grave as if about to proceed to prayer, raised his gla.s.s, and said--

"Peggy Perott!"

A general laugh succeeded this announcement, Peggy Perott being an old maid who went about tending the sick for hire, in the vicinity of Clawbonny, and known to us all as the ugliest woman in the county.

"Why do you first insist on my giving a toast, and then laugh at it when given?" cried Mr. Hardinge, half-amused, half-serious in his expostulations. "Peggy is an excellent woman, and one of the most useful I know."

"I wonder, my dear sir, you did not think of adding a sentiment!" cried I, a little pertly.

"And if I had, it would have been such a one as no woman need be ashamed to hear attached to her name. But enough of this; I have given Peggy Perott, and you are bound to drink her"--that we had done already; "and now, cousin, as I have pa.s.sed through the fiery furnace--"

"Unscathed?" demanded Lucy, laughing ready to kill herself.

"Yes, unscathed, miss: and now, cousin, I ask of you to honour us with a toast."

Mrs. Bradfort had been a widow many years, and was fortified with the panoply of her state. Accustomed to such appeals, which, when she was young and handsome, had been of much more frequent occurrence than of late, she held her gla.s.s for the wine with perfect self-possession, and gave her toast with the conscious dignity of one who had often been solicited in vain "to change her condition."

"I will give you," she said, raising her person and her voice, as if to invite scrutiny, "my dear old friend, good Dr. Wilson."

It was inc.u.mbent on a single person to give another who was also single; and the widow had been true to the usage; but "good Dr. Wilson" was a half-superannuated clergyman, whom no one could suspect of inspiring anything beyond friends.h.i.+p.

"Dear me--dear me!" cried Mr. Hardinge, earnestly; "how much more thoughtful, Mrs. Bradfort, you are than myself! Had I thought a moment, _I_ might have given the Doctor; for I studied with him, and honour him vastly."

This touch of simplicity produced another laugh--how easily we all laughed that night!--and it caused a little more confusion in the excellent divine. Mrs. Bradfort then called on me, as was her right; but I begged that Rupert might precede me, he knowing more persons, and being now a sort of man of the world.

"I will give the charming Miss Winthrop," said Rupert, without a moment's hesitation, tossing off his gla.s.s with an air that said, "how do you like _that?_"

As Winthrop was a highly respectable name, it denoted the set in which Rupert moved; and as for the young lady I dare say she merited his eulogium, though I never happened to see her. It was something, however, in 1802, for a youngster to dare to toast a Winthrop, or a Morris, or a Livingston, or a de Lancey, or a Stuyvesant, or a Beekman, or a Van Renssellaer, or a Schuyler, or a Rutherford, or a Bayard, or a Watts, or a Van Cortlandt, or a Verplanck, or a Jones, or a Walton, or any of that set. They, and twenty similar families, composed the remnant of the colonial aristocracy, and still made head, within the limits of Manhattan, against the inroads of the Van--something elses. Alas! alas!

how changed is all this, though I am obliged to believe it is all for the best.

"Do _you_ know Miss Winthrop?" I asked of Grace, in a whisper.

"Not at all; I am not much in that set," she answered, quietly. "Rupert and Lucy have been noticed by many persons whom I do not know."

This was the first intimation I got, that my sister did not possess all the advantages in society that were enjoyed by her friend. As is always the case where it is believed to be our _loss_, I felt indignant at first; had it been the reverse, I dare say I should have fancied it all very right. Consequences grew out of these distinctions which I could not then foresee, but which will be related in their place. Rupert now called on Grace for her toast, a lady commonly succeeding a gentleman.

My sister did not seem in the least disconcerted: but, after a moment's hesitation, she said--

"Mr. Edward Marston."

This was a strange name to me, but I afterwards ascertained it belonged to a respectable young man who visited Mrs. Bradfort's, and who stood very well with all his acquaintances. I looked at Rupert, to note the effect; but Rupert was as calm as Grace herself had been, when he gave Miss Winthrop.

"I believe I have no one to call upon but you, Miles," said Grace, smiling.

"Me! Why, you all know I am not acquainted with a soul. Our Ulster county girls have almost all gone out of my recollection; besides, no one would know them here, should I mention twenty."

"You strangely forget, brother, that most of us are Ulster county folk.

Try if you can recall no young lady--"

"Oh! easily enough, for that matter; a young fellow can hardly have lived nine months in the same cabin with Emily, and not think of her, when hard pushed; I will give you, Miss Emily Merton."