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Untitled Article
asking them to give or to loan you a thing or two , and then they'll be sure to be joyous to see us . '—* I ask them to give or to loan me anything ! Now do jest look at them and me , Aunt Cli , and then say what they ' re got to loan me . That ' s all fudge , and jest shows their poverty-pride : I should like to let them see my home at Paradise Plantation , with five hundred niggers that all look fit to drop if I do but turn my eye upon
em . lhey loan me !— ' Well , now , Jonathan , say no more about the loaning ; but jest walk straight in , and see how it will be . ' "—Vol . i . p . 230 . We need scarcely add that Jonathan ' s wooing was unsuccessful , to his own revengeful indignation , and Aunt Cli ' s utter astonishment . We must do Mrs Trollope the justice , however , to say that she makes the most of the American low life , as far as style is concerned . There are several good descriptions in the book , from which we extract the following of a planter ' s lady at New Orleans : —
u His first visit was at the house of Mr Bobbin . He was ushered with a vast deal of creole pomp into a splendid drawing-room , the furniture of which was no bad specimen of Parisian elegance- The walls of the room were half covered with enormous mirrors ; marble tables of all sorts and sizes displayed a large collection of Sevres china ; ottomans ,
sofas , and bergeres were invitingly placed in all parts of the spacious room ; and the atmosphere was deliciously scented by tuberoses , orange flowers , and jessamines . The light and heat of the day , which Was extremely sultry , were only permitted to enter through coloured canvass blinds continually sprinkled with water on the outside , and stretched over an ample balcony filled with the finest flowers .
" On first entering this elegant apartment Whitlaw believed it to be quite untenanted , and that deep-seated reverence for wealth , which had ever been a strong feature in his character , caused him to look round it with a feeling of respect that almost led him to prostrate himself in a salam upon the delicately-tinted matting which covered the floor . It was not till the second and more leisurely survey which he took of its enviable splendour , that he perceived a very young , little , round , pale , blackeyed woman sunk deep into a kangaroo chair , with one of her little feet
dangling from it , and the toe of the other supported on the shoulder of a young negro boy fantastically dressed , who sat on the floor before her . She was placed in the corner of the room , and a large orange tree , covered with blossoms , so arranged as to form a sort of canopy over her . Her attitude was one that might have rendered rising difficult to any woman , but to a creole it was impossible . She therefore clapped her miniature white hands together , and though the sound produced was
scarcely louder than what might have followed a similar concussion between two little balls of cotton , it was heard and obeyed by another black fairy in the dress of an oriental page , turbaned and trowsered in delicate white muslin , with a tiny vest of yellow satin , belted with gold . " She murmured something into the child ' s ear , who immediately took an ivory fan from off a table , and approaching Whitlaw , presented one end of it to him , and so led him forward towards his mistress , it being contrary to creole etiquette that a white skin should touch the hand of a negro /' , —Vol . ii , p . 237 .
Untitled Article
£ 88 The Life and Adventures
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1836, page 638, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2662/page/50/
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