We were proceeding along our dark path very slowly, for fear of
accidents, when I heard the approaching tread of a horse, and the
welcome sound of a man whistling. The boy hailed him with some
impatience in his voice, "I say!--mister! whereabouts _is_ Colonel
Talbot's?"
"The Colonel's? why, straight afore you;--follow your nose, you
buzzard!"
Here I interposed. "Be so good, friend, as to inform me how far we are
yet from Colonel Talbot's house?"
"Who have you got here?" cried the man in surprise.
"A lady, comed over the sea to visit the Colonel."
"Then," said the man, approaching my carriage--my cart, I should
say--with much respect, "I guess you're the lady that the Colonel has
been looking out for this week past. Why, I've been three times to St.
Thomas's with the team after you!"
"I'm very sorry you've had the trouble!"
"O, no trouble at all--shall I ride back and tell him you're coming?"
This I declined, for the poor man was evidently going home to his
supper.
To hear that the formidable Colonel was anxiously expecting me was very
encouraging, and, from the man's description, I supposed that we were
close to the house. Not so; the road, mocking my impatience, took so
many bends, and sweeps, and windings, up hill and down hill, that it was
an eternity before we arrived. The Colonel piques himself exceedingly on
this graceful and picturesque approach to his residence, and not without
reason; but on the present occasion I could have preferred a line more
direct to the line of beauty. The darkness, which concealed its charms,
left me sensible only to its length.
On ascending some high ground, a group of buildings was dimly descried.
And after oversetting part of a snake-fence before we found an entrance,
we drove up to the door. Lights were gleaming in the windows, and the
Colonel sallied forth with prompt gallantry to receive me.
My welcome was not only cordial, but courtly. The Colonel, taking me
under his arm, and ordering the boy and his horses to be well taken
care of, handed me into the hall or vestibule, where sacks of wheat and
piles of sheepskins lay heaped in primitive fashion; thence into a room,
the walls of which were formed of naked logs. Here no fauteuil,
spring-cushioned, extended its comfortable arms--no sofa here
"insidiously stretched out its lazy length;" Colonel Talbot held all
such luxuries in sovereign contempt. In front of a capacious chimney
stood a long wooden table, flanked with two wooden chairs, cut from the
forest in the midst of which they now stood. To one of these the Colonel
handed me, with the air of a courtier, and took the other himself. Like
all men who live out of the world, he retained a lively curiosity as to
what was passing in it, and I was pressed with a profusion of questions
as well as hospitable attentions; but wearied, exhausted, aching in
every nerve, the spirit with which I had at first met him in his own
style, was fast ebbing. I could neither speak nor eat, and was soon
dismissed to repose.
With courteous solicitude, he ushered me himself to the door of a
comfortable, well furnished bed room, where a fire blazed cheerfully,
where female hands had evidently presided to arrange my toilet, and
where female aid awaited me;--so much had the good Colonel been
calumniated!
* * * * *