CHAPTER X.
"Will you buy any tape, Or lace for your cape?--
Come to the peddler, Money's a meddler That doth utter all men's ware-a."--_Winter's Tale._
There they sat, those four young creatures, a perfect galaxy of brightand beaming eyes. There was not a plain face among them; and I wasstruck with the circumstance of how rare it was to meet with a youthfuland positively ugly American female. Kitty, too, was at the door by thetime we reached the carriage, and she also was a blooming andattractive-looking girl. It was a thousand pities that she spoke,however; the vulgarity of her utterance, tone of voice, cadences, andaccents, the latter a sort of singing whine, being in striking contrastto a sort of healthful and vigorous delicacy that marked her appearance.All the bright eyes grew brighter as I drew nearer, carrying the flutein my hand; but neither of the young ladies spoke.
"Buy a vatch, ma'ams," said uncle Ro, approaching his mother, cap inhand, with his box open.
"I thank you, friend; but I believe all here are provided with watchesalready."
"Mine ist ferry sheaps."
"I dare say they may be," returned dear grandmother, smiling; "thoughcheap watches are not usually the best. Is that very pretty pencilgold?"
"Yes, ma'ams; it ist of goot gold. If it might not be I might not sayso."
I saw suppressed smiles among the girls; all of whom, however, were toowell-bred to betray to common observers the sense of the ridiculous thateach felt at the equivoque that suggested itself in my uncle's words.
"What is the price of this pencil?" asked my grandmother.
Uncle Roger had too much tact to think of inducing his mother to take apurchase as he had influenced Miller, and he mentioned something nearthe true value of the "article," which was fifteen dollars.
"I will take it," returned my grandmother, dropping three half-eaglesinto the box; when, turning to Mary Warren, she begged her acceptance ofthe pencil, with as much respect in her manner as if she solicitedinstead of conferred a favor.
Mary Warren's handsome face was covered with blushes; she lookedpleased, and she accepted the offering, though I thought she hesitatedone moment about the propriety of so doing, most probably on account ofits value. My sister asked to look at this little present, and afteradmiring it, it passed from hand to hand, each praising its shape andornaments. All my uncle's wares, indeed, were in perfect good taste, thepurchase having been made of an importer of character, and paid for atsome cost. The watches, it is true, were, with one or two exceptions,cheap, as were most of the trinkets; but my uncle had about his person awatch or two, and some fine jewelry, that he had brought from Europehimself, expressly to bestow in presents, among which had been thepencil in question, and which he had dropped into the box but a momentbefore it was sold.
"Wa-a-l, Madam Littlepage," cried Miller, who used the familiarity ofone born on the estate, "this is the queerest watch-pedler I've met withyet. He asks fifteen dollars for that pencil, and only four for thiswatch!" showing his own purchase as he concluded.
My grandmother took the watch in her hand, and examined it attentively.
"It strikes me as singularly cheap!" she remarked, glancing a littledistrustfully, as I fancied, at her son, as if she thought he might beselling his brushes cheaper than those who only stole the materials,because he stole them ready made. "I know that these watches are madefor very little in the cheap countries of Europe, but one can hardly seehow this machinery was put together for so small a sum."
"I has 'em, matam, at all brices," put in my uncle.
"I have a strong desire to purchase a _good_ lady's watch, but should alittle fear buying of any but a known and regular dealer."
"You needn't fear us, ma'am," I ventured to say. "If we might sheatanypodies, we shouldn't sheat so goot a laty."
I do not know whether my voice struck Patt's ear pleasantly, or a wishto see the project of her grandmother carried out at once induced mysister to interfere; but interfere she did, and that by urging her agedparent to put confidence in us. Years had taught my grandmother caution,and she hesitated.
"But all these watches are of base metal, and I want one of good goldand handsome finish," observed my grandmother.
My uncle immediately produced a watch that he had bought of Blondel, inParis, for five hundred francs, and which was a beautiful littleornament for a lady's belt. He gave it to my grandmother, who read thename of the manufacturer with some little surprise. The watch itself wasthen examined attentively, and was applauded by all.
"And what may be the price of this?" demanded my grandmother.
"One hoondred dollars, matam: and sheaps at dat."
Tom Miller looked at the bit of tinsel in his own hand, and at thesmaller, but exquisitely-shaped "article" that my grandmother held up tolook at, suspended by its bit of ribbon, and was quite as much puzzledas he had evidently been a little while before, in his distinctionsbetween the rich and the poor. Tom was not able to distinguish the basefrom the true; that was all.
My grandmother did not appear at all alarmed at the price, though shecast another distrustful glance or two over her spectacles at theimaginary pedler. At length the beauty of the watch overcame her.
"If you will bring this watch to yonder large dwelling, I will pay youthe hundred dollars for it," she said; "I have not as much money with mehere."
"Ja, ja--ferry goot; you might keep das vatch, laty, und I will coomefor der money after I haf got some dinners of somebodys."
My grandmother had no scruple about accepting of the credit, of course,and she was about to put the watch in her pocket, when Patt laid herlittle gloved hand on it, and cried--
"Now, dearest grandmother, let it be done at once--there is no one butus three present, you know!"
"Such is the impatience of a child!" exclaimed the elder lady, laughing."Well, you shall be indulged. I gave you that pencil for a keepsake,Mary, only _en attendant_, it having been my intention to offer a watch,as soon as a suitable one could be found, as a memorial of the sense Ientertain of the spirit you showed during that dark week in which theanti-renters were so menacing. Here, then, is such a watch as I mightpresume to ask you to have the goodness to accept."
Mary Warren seemed astounded! The color mounted to her temples; then shebecame suddenly pale. I had never seen so pretty a picture of gentlefemale distress--a distress that arose from conflicting, but creditablefeelings.
"Oh! Mrs. Littlepage!" she exclaimed, after looking in astonishment atthe offering for a moment, and in silence. "You cannot have intendedthat beautiful watch for me!"
"For you, my dear; the beautiful watch is not a whit too good for mybeautiful Mary."
"But, dear, _dear_ Mrs. Littlepage, it is altogether too handsome for mystation--for my means."
"A lady can very well wear such a watch; and you are a lady in everysense of the word, and so you need have no scruples on that account. Asfor the means, you will not misunderstand me if I remind you that itwill be bought with my means, and there can be no extravagance in thepurchase."
"But we are so poor, and that watch has so rich an appearance! Itscarcely seems right."
"I respect your feelings and sentiments, my dear girl, and canappreciate them. I suppose you know I was once as poor, nay, much poorerthan you are yourself."
"You, Mrs. Littlepage! No, that can hardly be. You are of an affluentand very respectable family, I know."
"It is quite true, nevertheless, my dear. I shall not affect extremehumility, and deny that the Malbones did and do belong to the gentry ofthe land, but my brother and myself were once so much reduced as to toilwith the surveyors, in the woods, quite near this property. We had thenno claim superior to yours, and in many respects were reduced muchlower. Besides, the daughter of an educated and well-connected clergymanhas claims that, in a worldly point of view alone, entitle her to acertain consideration. You will do me the favor to accept my offering?"
"Dear Mrs. Littlepage! I do not know how to refuse _you_, or how to
accept so rich a gift! You will let me consult my father, first?"
"That will be no more than proper, my dear," returned my belovedgrandmother, quietly putting the watch into her own pocket; "Mr. Warren,luckily, dines with us, and the matter can be settled before we sit downto table."
This ended the discussion, which had commenced under an impulse offeeling that left us all its auditors. As for my uncle and myself, it isscarcely necessary to say we were delighted with the little scene. Thebenevolent wish to gratify, on the one side, with the natural scrupleson the other, about receiving, made a perfect picture for ourcontemplation. The three girls, who were witnesses of what passed, toomuch respected Mary's feelings to interfere, though Patt restrainedherself with difficulty. As to Tom Miller and Kitty, they doubtlesswondered why "Warren's gal" was such a fool as to hesitate aboutaccepting a watch that was worth a hundred dollars. This was anotherpoint they did not understand.
"You spoke of dinner," continued my grandmother, looking at my uncle."If you and your companion will follow us to the house, I will pay youfor the watch, and order you a dinner in the bargain."
We were right down glad to accept this offer, making our bows andexpressing our thanks, as the carriage whirled off. We remained amoment, to take our leave of Miller.
"When you've got through at the Nest," said that semi-worthy fellow,"give us another call here. I should like my woman and Kitty to have alook at your finery, before you go down to the village with it."
With a promise to return to the farm-house, we proceeded on our way tothe building which, in the familiar parlance of the country, was calledthe Nest, or the Nest house, from Ravensnest, its true name, and whichTom Miller, in his country dialect, called the "Neest." The distancebetween the two buildings was less than half a mile, the grounds of thefamily residence lying partly between them. Many persons would havecalled the extensive lawns which surrounded my paternal abode a park,but it never bore that name with us. They were too large for a paddock,and might very well have come under the former appellation; but, asdeer, or animals of any sort, except those that are domestic, had neverbeen kept within it, the name had not been used. We called them thegrounds--a term which applies equally to large and small enclosures ofthis nature--while the broad expanse of verdure which lies directlyunder the windows goes by the name of the lawn. Notwithstanding thecheapness of land among us, there has been very little progress made inthe art of landscape gardening; and if we have anything like parkscenery, it is far more owing to the gifts of a bountiful nature than toany of the suggestions of art. Thanks to the cultivated taste ofDowning, as well as to his well-directed labors, this reproach is likelyto be soon removed, and country life will acquire this pleasure, amongthe many others that are so peculiarly its own. After lying for morethan twenty years--a stigma on the national taste--disfigured by ravinesor gullies, and otherwise in a rude and discreditable condition, thegrounds of the White House have been brought into a condition to denotethat they are the property of a civilized country. The Americans are asapt at imitation as the Chinese, with a far greater disposition to admitof change; and little beyond good models is required to set them on theright track. But it is certain that, as a nation, we have yet to acquirenearly all that belongs to the art I have mentioned that lies beyondavenues of trees, with an occasional tuft of shrubbery. The abundance ofthe latter, that forms the wilderness of sweets, the _masses_ of flowersthat spot the surface of Europe, the beauty of curved lines, and thewhole finesse of surprises, reliefs, backgrounds and vistas, are thingsso little known among us as to be almost "arisdogratic," as my uncle Rowould call the word.
Little else had been done at Ravensnest than to profit by the nativegrowth of the trees, and to take advantage of the favorablecircumstances in the formation of the grounds. Most travellers imaginethat it might be an easy thing to lay out a park in the virgin forest,as the axe might spare the thickets, and copses, and woods, thatelsewhere are the fruits of time and planting. This is all a mistake,however, as the rule; though modified exceptions may and do exist. Thetree of the American forest shoots upward toward the light, growing sotall and slender as to be unsightly; and even when time has given itstrunk a due size, the top is rarely of a breadth to ornament a park or alawn, while its roots, seeking their nourishment in the rich alluviumformed by the decayed leaves of a thousand years, lie too near thesurface to afford sufficient support after losing the shelter of itsneighbors. It is owing to reasons like these that the ornamental groundsof an American country-house have usually to be commenced _ab origine_,and that natural causes so little aid in furnishing them.
My predecessors had done a little toward assisting nature, at the Nest,and what was of almost equal importance, in the state of knowledge onthis subject as it existed in the country sixty years since, they haddone little to mar her efforts. The results were, that the grounds ofRavensnest possess a breadth that is the fruit of the breadth of ourlands, and a rural beauty which, without being much aided by art, wasstill attractive. The herbage was kept short by sheep, of which onethousand, of the fine wool, were feeding on the lawns, along the slopes,and particularly on the distant heights, as we crossed the grounds onour way to the doors.
The Nest house was a respectable New York country dwelling, as suchbuildings were constructed among us in the last quarter of the pastcentury, a little improved and enlarged by the second and thirdgenerations of its owners. The material was of stone, the low cliff onwhich it stood supplying enough of an excellent quality; and the shapeof the main _corps de batiment_ as near a square as might be. Each faceof this part of the constructions offered five windows to view, thisbeing almost the prescribed number for a country residence in that day,as three have since got to be in towns. These windows, however, had somesize, the main building being just sixty feet square, which was aboutten feet in each direction larger than was common so soon after therevolution. But wings had been added to the original building, and thaton a plan which conformed to the shape of a structure in square logs,that had been its predecessor on its immediate site. These wings wereonly of a story and a half each, and doubling on each side of the mainedifice just far enough to form a sufficient communication, they ranback to the very verge of a cliff some forty feet in height,overlooking, at their respective ends, a meandering rivulet, and a wideexpanse of very productive flats, that annually filled my barns with hayand my cribs with corn. Of this level and fertile bottomland there wasnear a thousand acres, stretching in three directions, of which twohundred belonged to what was called the Nest farm. The remainder wasdivided among the farms of the adjacent tenantry. This littlecircumstance, among the thousand-and-one other atrocities that werecharged upon me, had been made a ground of accusation, to which I shallpresently have occasion to advert. I shall do this the more readily,because the fact has not yet reached the ears and set in motion thetongues of legislators--heaven bless us, how words do get corrupted bytoo much use!--in their enumeration of the griefs of the tenants of theState.
Everything about the Nest was kept in perfect order, and in a conditionto do credit to the energy and taste of my grandmother, who had orderedall these things for the last few years, or since the death of mygrandfather. This circumstance, connected with the fact that thebuilding was larger and more costly than those of most of the othercitizens of the country, had, of late years, caused Ravensnest to betermed an "aristocratic residence." This word "aristocratic," I findsince my return home, has got to be a term of expansive signification,its meaning depending on the particular habits and opinions of theperson who happens to use it. Thus, he who chews tobacco thinks itaristocratic in him who deems the practice nasty not to do the same; theman who stoops accuses him who is straight in the back of havingaristocratic shoulders; and I have actually met with one individual whomaintained that it was excessively aristocratic to pretend not to blowone's nose with his fingers. It will soon be aristocratic to maintainthe truth of the familiar Latin axiom of "_de gustibus non disputandumest_."
As we approached the door o
f the Nest house, which opened on the piazzathat stretched along three sides of the main building, and the outerends of both wings, the coachman was walking his horses away from it, onthe road that led to the stables. The party of ladies had made aconsiderable circuit after quitting the farm, and had arrived but aminute before us. All the girls but Mary Warren had entered the house,careless on the subject of the approach of two pedlers; she remained,however, at the side of my grandmother, to receive us.
"I believe in my soul," whispered uncle Ro, "that my dear old mother hasa secret presentiment who we are, by her manifesting so much respect.T'ousand t'anks, matam, t'ousand t'anks," he continued, dropping intohis half-accurate, half-blundering broken English, "for dis great honor,such as we might not expect das laty of das house to wait for us at herdoor."
"This young lady tells me that she has seen you before, and that sheunderstands you are both persons of education and good manners, who havebeen driven from your native country by political troubles. Such beingthe case, I cannot regard you as common pedlers. I have known what itwas to be reduced in fortune"--my dear grandmother's voice trembled alittle--"and can feel for those who thus suffer."
"Matam, dere might be moch trut' in some of dis," answered my uncle,taking off his cap, and bowing very much like a gentleman, an act inwhich I imitated him immediately. "We _haf_ seen petter tays; und myson, dere, hast peen edicated at an university. But we are now poorpedlers of vatches, und dem dat might make moosic in der streets."
My grandmother looked as a lady would look under such circumstances,neither too free to forget present appearances, nor coldly neglectful ofthe past. She knew that something was due to her own household, and tothe example she ought to set it, while she felt that far more was due tothe sentiment that unites the cultivated. We were asked into the house,were told a table was preparing for us, and were treated with a generousand considerate hospitality that involved no descent from her owncharacter, or that of the sex; the last being committed to the keepingof every lady.
In the meantime, business proceeded with my uncle. He was paid hishundred dollars; and all his stores of value, including rings, brooches,earrings, chains, bracelets, and other trinkets that he had intended aspresents to his wards, were produced from his pockets, and laid beforethe bright eyes of the three girls--Mary Warren keeping in thebackground, as one who ought not to look on things unsuited to herfortune. Her father had arrived, however, had been consulted, and thepretty watch was already attached to the girdle of the prettier waist. Ifancied the tear of gratitude that still floated in her serene eyes wasa jewel of a far higher price than any my uncle could exhibit.
We had been shown into the library, a room that was in the front of thehouse, and of which the windows all opened on the piazza. I was at firsta little overcome at thus finding myself, and unrecognized, under thepaternal roof, and in a dwelling that was my own, after so many years ofabsence. Shall I confess it! Everything appeared diminutive and mean,after the buildings to which I had been accustomed in the old world. Iam not now drawing comparisons with the palaces of princes and theabodes of the great, as the American is apt to fancy, whenever anythingis named that is superior to the things to which he is accustomed; butto the style, dwellings, and appliances of domestic life that pertain tothose of other countries who have not a claim in anything to beaccounted my superiors--scarcely my equals. In a word, Americanaristocracy, or that which it is getting to be the fashion to stigmatizeas aristocratic, would be deemed very democratic in most of the nationsof Europe. Our Swiss brethren have their chateaux and their habits, thatare a hundred times more aristocratic than anything about Ravensnest,without giving offence to liberty; and I feel persuaded, were theproudest establishment in all America pointed out to a European as anaristocratic abode, he would be very apt to laugh at it, in his sleeve.The secret of this charge among ourselves is the innate dislike which isgrowing up in the country to see any man distinguished from the massaround him in anything, even though it should be in merit. It is nothingbut the expansion of the principle which gave rise to the traditionaryfeud between the "plebeians and patricians" of Albany at thecommencement of this century, and which has now descended so muchfarther than was then contemplated by the _soi-disant_ "plebeians" ofthat day, as to become quite disagreeable to their own descendants. Butto return to myself--
I will own that, so far from finding any grounds of exultation in my ownaristocratical splendor, when I came to view my possessions at home, Ifelt mortified and disappointed. The things that I had fancied reallyrespectable, and even fine, from recollection, now appeared verycommonplace, and in many particulars mean. "Really," I found myselfsaying, _sotto voce_, "all this is scarcely worthy of being the cause ofdeserting the right, setting sound principles at defiance, and offorgetting God and his commandments!" Perhaps I was too inexperienced tocomprehend how capacious is the maw of the covetous man, and howmicroscopic the eye of envy.
"You are welcome to Ravensnest," said Mr. Warren, approaching andoffering his hand in a friendly way, much as he would address any otheryoung friend; "we arrived a little before you, and I have had my earsand eyes open ever since, in the hope of hearing your flute, and ofseeing your form in the highway, near the parsonage, where you promisedto visit me."
Mary was standing at her father's elbow, as when I first saw her, andshe gazed wistfully at my flute, as she would not have done had she seenme in my proper attire, assuming my proper character.
"I danks you, sir," was my answer. "We might haf plenty of times for alittle moosic, vhen das laties shall be pleaset to say so. I canst blay'Yankee Doodle,' 'Hail Coloombias,' and der 'Star Spangled Banner,' undall dem airs, as dey so moch likes at der taverns and on der road."
Mr. Warren laughed, and he took the flute from my hand, and began toexamine it. I now trembled for the incognito! The instrument had beenmine for many years, and was a very capital one, with silver keys,stops, and ornaments. What if Patt--what if my dear grandmother shouldrecognize it! I would have given the handsomest trinket in my uncle'scollection to get the flute back again into my own hands; but, before anopportunity offered for that, it went from hand to hand, as theinstrument that had produced the charming sounds heard that morning,until it reached those of Martha. The dear girl was thinking of thejewelry, which, it will be remembered, was rich, and intended in partfor herself, and she passed the instrument on, saying, hurriedly:
"See, dear grandmother, this is the flute which you pronounced thesweetest-toned of any you had ever heard!"
My grandmother took the flute, started, put her spectacles closer to hereyes, examined the instrument, and turned pale--for her cheeks stillretained a little of the color of their youth--and then cast a glancehurriedly and anxiously at me. I could see that she was pondering onsomething profoundly in her most secret mind, for a minute or two.Luckily the others were too much occupied with the box of the pedler toheed her movements. She walked slowly out of the door, almost brushingme as she passed, and went into the hall. Here she turned, and, catchingmy eye, she signed for me to join her. Obeying this signal, I followed,until I was led into a little room, in one of the wings, that I wellremembered as a sort of private parlor attached to my grandmother's ownbedroom. To call it a _boudoir_ would be to caricature things, itsfurniture being just that of the sort of room I have mentioned, or of aplain, neat, comfortable, country parlor. Here my grandmother took herseat on a sofa, for she trembled so she could not stand, and then sheturned to gaze at me wistfully, and with an anxiety it would bedifficult for me to describe.
"Do not keep me in suspense!" she said, almost awfully in tone andmanner, "am I right in my conjecture?"
"Dearest grandmother, you are!" I answered in my natural voice.
No more was needed: we hung on each other's necks, as had been my wontin boyhood.
"But who is that pedler, Hugh?" demanded my grandmother, after a time."Can it possibly be Roger, my son?"
"It is no other; we have come to visit you, incog."
"And why this d
isguise?--Is it connected with the troubles?"
"Certainly; we have wished to take a near view with our own eyes, andsupposed it might be unwise to come openly, in our proper characters."
"In this you have done well; yet I hardly know how to welcome you, inyour present characters. On no account must your real names be revealed.The demons of tar and feathers, the sons of liberty and equality, whoillustrate their principles as they do their courage, by attacking thefew with the many, would be stirring, fancying themselves heroes andmartyrs in the cause of justice, did they learn you were here. Ten armedand resolute men might drive a hundred of them, I do believe; for theyhave all the cowardice of thieves, but they are heroes with the unarmedand feeble. Are you safe yourselves, appearing thus disguised, under thenew law?"
"We are not armed, not having so much as a pistol; and that will protectus."
"I am sorry to say, Hugh, that this country is no longer what I onceknew it. Its justice, if not wholly departed, is taking to itself wings,and its blindness, not in a disregard of persons, but in a faculty ofseeing only the stronger side. A landlord, in my opinion, would have butlittle hope, with jury, judge, or executive, for doing that whichthousands of the tenants have done, still do, and will continue to do,with perfect impunity, unless some dire catastrophe stimulate the publicfunctionaries to their duties, by awakening public indignation."
"This is a miserable state of things, dearest grandmother; and whatmakes it worse is the cool indifference with which most persons regardit. A better illustration of the utter selfishness of human naturecannot be given, than in the manner in which the body of the people lookon, and see wrong thus done to a few of their number."
"Such persons as Mr. Seneca Newcome would answer, that the publicsympathizes with the poor, who are oppressed by the rich, because thelast do not wish to let the first rob them of their estates! We hear agreat deal of the strong robbing the weak, all over the world, but fewamong ourselves, I am afraid, are sufficiently clear-sighted to see howvivid an instance of the truth now exists among ourselves."
"Calling the tenants the strong, and the landlords the weak?"
"Certainly; numbers make strength in this country, in which all power inpractice, and most of it in theory, rests with the majority. Were thereas many landlords as there are tenants, my life on it, no one would seethe least injustice in the present state of things."
"So says my uncle; but I hear the light steps of the girls--we must beon our guard."
At that instant Martha entered, followed by all three of the girls,holding in her hand a very beautiful Manilla chain that my uncle hadpicked up in his travels, and had purchased as a present to my futurewife, whomsoever she might turn out to be, and which he had had theindiscretion to show to his ward. A look of surprise was cast by eachgirl in succession, as she entered the room, on me, but neither said,and I fancy neither thought much of my being shut up there with an oldlady of eighty, after the first moment. Other thoughts were uppermost atthe moment.
"Look at this, dearest grandmamma!" cried Patt, holding up the chain asshe entered the room. "Here is just the most exquisite chain that wasever wrought, and of the purest gold; but the pedler refuses to partwith it!"
"Perhaps you do not offer enough, my child; it is, indeed, very, verybeautiful; pray what does he say is its value?"
"One hundred dollars, he says; and I can readily believe it, for itsweight is near half the money. I do wish Hugh were at home; I am certainhe would contrive to get it, and make it a present to me!"
"Nein, nein, young lady," put in the pedler, who, a littleunceremoniously, had followed the girls into the room, though he knew,of course, precisely where he was coming; "dat might not be. Dat chainis der broperty of my son, t'ere, und I haf sworn it shalt only be gifento his wife."
Patt colored a little, and she pouted a good deal; then she laughedoutright.
"If it is only to be had on those conditions, I am afraid I shall neverown it," she said, saucily, though it was intended to be uttered so lowas not to reach my ears. "I will pay the hundred dollars out of my ownpocket-money, however, if that will buy it. Do say a good word for me,grandmamma?"
How prettily the hussy uttered that word of endearment, so differentfrom the "paw" and "maw" one hears among the dirty-noses that are to befound in the mud-puddles! But our grandparent was puzzled, for she knewwith whom she had to deal, and of course saw that money would donothing. Nevertheless, the state of the game rendered it necessary tosay and do something that might have an appearance of complying withPatty's request.
"Can I have more success in persuading you to change your mind, sir?"she said, looking at her son in a way that let him know at once, or atleast made him suspect at once, that she was in his secret. "It wouldgive me great pleasure to be able to gratify my granddaughter, by makingher a present of so beautiful a chain."
My uncle Ro advanced to his mother, took the hand she had extended withthe chain in it, in order the better to admire the trinket, and hekissed it with a profound respect, but in such a manner as to make itseem to the lookers-on an act of European usage, rather than what itwas, the tempered salute of a child to his parent.
"Laty," he then said, with emphasis, "if anyboty might make me change aresolution long since made, it would be one as fenerable, und gracious,und goot as I am sartain you most be. But I haf vowet to gif dat chainto das wife of mine son, vhen he might marry, one day, some bretty youngAmerican; und it might not be."
Dear grandmother smiled; but now she understood that it was reallyintended the chain was to be an offering to my wife, she no longerwished to change its destination. She examined the bauble a few moments,and said to me:
"Do you wish this, as well as your un--father, I should say? It is arich present for a poor man to make."
"Ja, ja, laty, it ist so; but vhen der heart goes, golt might be t'oughtsheap to go wid it."
The old lady was half ready to laugh in my face, at hearing this attemptat Germanic English; but the kindness, and delight, and benevolenttenderness of her still fine eyes made me wish to throw myself in herarms again, and kiss her. Patt continued to _bouder_ for a moment or twolonger, but her excellent nature soon gave in, and the smiles returnedto her countenance as the sun issues from behind a cloud in May.
"Well, the disappointment may and must be borne," she said,good-naturedly; "though it is much the most lovely chain I have everseen."
"I dare say the right person will one day find one quite as lovely topresent to you!" said Henrietta Coldbrooke, a little pointedly.
I did not like this speech. It was an allusion that a well-bred youngwoman ought not to have made, at least before others, even pedlers; andit was one that a young woman of a proper tone of feeling would not beapt to make. I determined from that instant the chain should neverbelong to Miss Henrietta, though she was a fine, showy girl, and thoughsuch a decision would disappoint my uncle sadly. I was a littlesurprised to see a slight blush on Patt's cheeks, and then I rememberedsomething of the name of the traveller, Beekman. Turning toward MaryWarren, I saw plain enough that she was disappointed because my sisterwas disappointed, and for no other reason in the world.
"Your grandmother will meet with another chain, when she goes to town,that will make you forget this," she whispered, affectionately, close atmy sister's ears.
Patt smiled, and kissed her friend with a warmth of manner thatsatisfied me these two charming young creatures loved each othersincerely. But my dear old grandmother's curiosity had been awakened,and she felt a necessity for having it appeased. She still held thechain, and as she returned it to me, who happened to be nearest to her,she said:
"And so, sir, your mind is sincerely made up to offer this chain to yourfuture wife?"
"Yes, laty; or what might be better, to das young frau, before we mightbe marriet."
"And is your choice made?" glancing round at the girls, who were groupedtogether, looking at some other trinkets of my uncle's. "Have you chosenthe young woman who is to possess so handsome a c
hain?"
"Nein, nein," I answered, returning the smile, and glancing also at thegroup; "dere ist so many peautiful laties in America, one needn't be ina hurry. In goot time I shalt find her dat ist intended for me."
"Well, grandmamma," interrupted Patt, "since nobody can have the chain,unless on certain conditions, here are the three other things that wehave chosen for Ann, Henrietta, and myself, and they are a ring, a pairof bracelets, and a pair of earrings. The cost, altogether, will be twohundred dollars; can you approve of that?"
My grandmother, now she knew who was the pedler, understood the wholematter, and had no scruples. The bargain was soon made, when she sent usall out of the room, under the pretence we should disturb her whilesettling with the watchseller. Her real object, however, was to be alonewith her son, not a dollar passing between them, of course.