Book: Elinor Wyllys

S >> Susan Fenimore Cooper >> Elinor Wyllys




"Well, really," exclaimed Harry, looking rather cross, probably
at being disturbed in his reading, "young ladies' love of finery
seems quite inexhaustible; it is sometimes incomprehensible to
the duller perceptions of the male sex."

"Don't be saucy!" said Elinor.

"Why, you can't deny the fact, that you and Jane have been doing
nothing else, all the morning, but tumble over this Paris
finery?"

"I beg your pardon--we have been talking quite sensibly, too;
have we not, Aunt Agnes?"

"Much as usual, I believe, my dear," replied Miss Wyllys.

"Pray observe, that the table contains something besides finery;
here are some very good French and Italian books; but, I suppose,
Jane will say, those you selected yourself."

"I certainly did," said Harry; "and the music, too."

"Well, I have half a mind not to tell you, that we like the books
and the music quite as well as anything here," said Elinor,
colouring; and then, as if almost fearing that she had betrayed
her feelings, she continued, in a gay tone. "But, why are you so
severe upon us this morning?"

"Unpalatable truth, I suppose," said Harry, shrugging his
shoulders.

"Pray, remember, sir, that if finery be thrown away upon the
noble sex, at the present day, it was not always so. Let me refer
you to certain kings, who, not content with studying their own
dresses, have condescended to compose those of their queens, too.
Remember how many great heroes--your Turennes and
Marlboroughs--have appeared in diamonds and satin, velvet and
feathers!"

{"Turenne" = Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne
(1611-1675), a famous French military commander; "Marlborough" =
John Churchill Marlborough, Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), a
famous British military commander}

"But that was two hundred years ago."

"They were heroes, nevertheless; and, I suppose, une fois
caporal, toujours caporal. But, if you prefer something nearer to
our own time, figure to yourself Horace Walpole, and General
Conway, some half-century since, consulting, in their
correspondence, upon the particular shade of satin best suited to
their complexions--whether pea-green, or white, were the most
favourable."

{"une foi caporal...." = once a corporal, always a corporal
(French); "Walpole" = Horace Walpole (1717-1797), English author;
"Conway" = General Henry Conway (1721-1795), English general and
politician}

Hazlehurst laughed.

"There it is, in white and black!" said Elinor. "Just remember
Goldsmith, strutting about Temple Gardens, in his blush-coloured
satin, and fancying everybody in love with him, too!"

{"Goldsmith" = Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1775), British author;
"Temple Gardens" = in London on the Thames River, next to The
Temple (an ancient English school of law)}

"Quarter! quarter! Nelly," cried her grandfather, laughing.

"True, I must confess," said Harry, smiling; "but that was more
than fifty years ago. The world has grown wiser, now."

"Has it?"

"Look at our sober coats, to-day--the last Paris fashions, too!"

"Yes--but what is the reason?" cried Elinor, laughing herself.
"You have just found out that finery, and a showy exterior, are
of no use to you--they do not increase your influence with the
ladies! We do not value a man more for a showy exterior!"

"I submit," said Harry; but he coloured, and seemed to Miss
Agnes, more embarrassed by Elinor's remark than was necessary. He
threw down his book, however, and crossed the room to take a
place near her.

"What are you going to do this morning?" he said, quietly.

A walk was proposed, and soon after the young people, accompanied
by Bruno, set out together.



CHAPTER X.

"Fashion, leader of a chattering train."
COWPER.

{William Cowper (English poet, 1731-1800), "Conversation" line
457}

MISS PATSEY'S mother was more unwell than usual; and after
breakfast the following morning, Elinor prepared a little basket
of particularly fine peaches, which she proposed carrying to Mrs.
Hubbard, herself. Harry offered to accompany her, and Jane was
persuaded to join them; although in general, she disliked every
kind of motion except dancing.

The travellers had already seen Miss Patsey and her youngest
sister, and they were now so fortunate as to find Charlie at
home. He had come from New York, the evening before, and, of
course, was much pleased to see his young friends; indeed, he
showed so much emotion at the meeting, as to change colour when
he first saw the three cousins enter the little gate.

"Why, Charlie, you have grown in inches; as well as in dignity,
since we parted," said Hazlehurst, shaking him warmly by the
hand.

"I shall never arrive at any great elevation either way," replied
the youth, after shaking hands also with Jane.

"I don't know that; you have grown half a foot since I saw you,
and you have done wonders I hear, as a painter. Mr. Wyllys, and
Elinor, are both great admirers of your pictures."

"Wonders are comparative, you know; I believe I have accomplished
more, for instance, than my mother anticipated, for she thought I
was going to devote myself to signs and window-blinds."

{"window-blinds" = window shades were at this time frequently
decorated with hand painted pictures}

"That is your account of the matter. But don't suppose I have not
learned that Mr. Charles Hubbard is looked upon as one of our
most promising young artists, and that several of his pictures
are thought the best of their kind that have been painted this
side the Atlantic."

"You are very much improved in flattery by a visit to Paris,"
said Charlie, smiling.

"Only sober truth, as you must well know, Mr. Charles Hubbard. I
hope you have something here for us to look at; I am really very
impatient to see some of your pictures. I wish you could have
enjoyed half the fine works of art that I have seen in the last
two years."

Hubbard replied that he had strong hopes of going abroad himself
before long, thanks to the liberality of his uncle, and the
promise of several orders from different gentlemen. Harry
congratulated him warmly, though he regretted that Charlie should
think of leaving home just as he himself returned.

The young 1adies paid their visit to Mrs. Hubbard in her
bed-room, while Harry and Charlie talked over a hundred different
things together; and after engaging Charles to dine at
Wyllys-Roof, they walked home again.

"Miss Patsey's parlour really looks neater and smaller than
ever," observed Harry. "And I don't think I have seen such an
honest, good-natured, pleasant face as her's, since I left
Longbridge. She seems satisfied now, with the idea of Charlie's
being an artist."

"She is resigned to it, rather," said Elinor, "now that the
matter is entirely settled."

"Charlie looks pale," observed Harry; "he has grown though, and
he is no longer so very slight as he used to be."

"He seems to be well," replied Elinor; "but at times his spirits
are not good. He has been much interested in your
movements--quite anxious about your return."

"Charlie is a right good fellow," said Harry; "I was in hopes to
see a great deal of him, this winter." At this moment Jane
dropped a glove; of course Harry picked it up, and he continued
silent after doing so.

"There, you see, is Mr. Taylor's new house," observed Elinor, as
an opening in a grove of young trees allowed a full view of a
house of some size, and very great pretensions.

Jane looked at the home of her friend Adeline with
interest--Harry exclaimed, "What architecture!"

"Don't abuse it," said Elinor, "for I assure you 'Mr. Taylor's
splendid mansion'--'Mr. Taylor's magnificent seat' is very much
admired."

Just as the party reached the piazza of Wyllys-Roof, Mr. Taylor's
barouche drove up to the door, and in an instant Miss Adeline
Taylor had thrown herself, and her fashionable morning-dress,
into Jane's arms.

"I was so glad to find you were staying here!" she exclaimed. "Pa
and I only arrived from Saratoga last night; I did not expect you
for a month to come."

"We had a very short passage for the season," said Jane,
returning the embrace quite cordially.

"We seem to have taken all our friends rather by surprise, Miss
Taylor," said Harry.

"Well, if I had been in your place, I should have staid in Paris
till the last minute;--though, I dare say, YOU were in a hurry to
get back to Longbridge, Mr. Hazlehurst; no doubt you wanted to
see ME very much. Put I wonder that Jane did not contrive to stay
there."

Harry looked a little embarrassed, and Jane, too, coloured a
little; though there seemed to be no very good reason that either
should do so.

"Did you find Saratoga pleasant, this summer, Miss Taylor?" asked
Elinor, drawing a chair near the bench where the two friends were
sitting, hand in hand.

"Oh, delightful!--Every house full, from the cellar to the
garret. How often I wished for you, Jane! if it was only earlier
in the season I would make pa take us there again, just for the
pleasure of showing off your new French fashions--you would be
the greatest belle of the season."

"We need not inquire who was the belle," said Elinor; "such
important news reaches even sober, home-staying people like us."

"Oh, we had half a dozen belles--all lively, pretty girls. There
was a young gentleman, from Savannah, at Congress Hall, who wrote
some verses about us, and called us the 'Chime of Bells;' it was
a sort of imitation of 'Those Evening Bells,' and was published
in the Saratoga papers. But if Jane had been there, I don't think
we should have stood much chance."

{"Those Evening Bells," popular song by the Irish poet Thomas
Moore (1779-1852), arranged by Sir John Stevenson (1761-1833)}

"You think the poet would have rung a bob-major, for Jane?"

"Certainly; with her trunks full of things from Paris, she would
have carried all before her."

"I don't think Jane has brought a very large share of finery with
her," said Elinor.

"No, indeed," said Harry; "only five trunks and three boxes,
which I had the honour of getting through the Custom-House."

"But part of it was for her friends," said Elinor.

"You would have needed a large supply, I can tell you, Jane,"
said Miss Adeline, "if you had wanted to out-dash us; for we
determined this season, some half-dozen of us, to out-do the
young ladies who were there last year."

"Did you succeed?" said Hazlehurst.

"To be sure we did. We made a firm resolve not only to change our
dress six times every day, but never to wear the same dress
twice. We drove several families away by that manoeuvre; but you
have no idea what fun it was to us, who entered into the spirit
of the thing. For two days, though, we were in great trepidation.
There were a couple of Baltimore girls there, great dashers, who
would not enter into our agreement; and the spiteful things
actually changed their dress seven times, the two first days."

"Seven changes!" said Elinor; "how did they manage that?"

"Why, they came down to breakfast in a white dress; after
breakfast they would drive in another, of course; then they would
show themselves in the drawing-room, after driving, in a pink
muslin, perhaps; at dinner, they wore another; then after dinner,
they would change again; in the evening they wore party-dresses,
of course; and after they went up stairs, they would visit each
other in what they called dress night-wrappers. Now, wasn't it
mean in them?"

"Very," said Harry, laughing.

"To be sure it was. Changing six times was no more than was
necessary; all we 'evening bells' did, was never to wear the same
dress twice. Would you believe it, after putting such a bold face
on the matter, the third day they disappeared suddenly! We had a
good crow, I can tell you. There was a poor little innocent
there, at the same time, from Boston, who tried to beat us on
another tack, as Lieut. Johnson said; they called her the
blue-bell. Well, she never changed her dress, morning, noon, or
night--and just to spite us. But, dear me, we only laughed--we
didn't care a fig for her; although she was very pretty, she
couldn't get a man to speak to her, excepting one old fossil
Professor, who wore spectacles, and walked up and down with her
on the piazza all the time."

{"Lieut. Johnson" = not identified}

"She was no worthy rival for the Chime of Bells!" said Harry.

"Certainly not. But I can tell you, that after we had been there
a week, two of the Chime were in great danger, and one of them no
less a person than your humble servant; the other was Anne
Hunter--Jane, you remember Anne Hunter, who was at Mrs. G-----'s
with us? Well, Anne and I were in great trouble, one day. Now,
Mr. Hazlehurst, I hope you can keep a secret."

"A lady's secret?--Can you doubt me, Miss Taylor?"

"Well, mind now, you never mention it; but, Anne and I got down
to our last dozen dresses, and we were pledged to stay a week
longer. This was Monday, and on Thursday there was to be a
pic-nic, given expressly to the Chime of Bells. At first, I
thought I was the only one in such a deplorable state; but,
happily, I discovered that Anne, whose room was next to mine, was
no better off. And now, how do you suppose we managed?"

"Pray, what did you do?" said Elinor, laughing.

"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.

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