IN THE DRESS OF MAGNIFICENCE
"The beautiful Madam Whitworth came down upon the same train which I
occupied," I said as I remembered to raise from my head my hat by that
action on the part of my Mr. Buzz.
"Oh, then you have been presented to L'Aiglon?" said Mr. Buzz to that
Madam Whitworth who stood smiling while I was presented to the very
lovely girl of great blondness, who both blushed and what is called
giggled as I kissed her hand, though in her eyes I found a nice
friendliness to me.
"We are old friends who know all about each other, aren't we, Mr.
Robert Carruthers?" and in her gay answer to that Mr. Buzz I detected
a challenge as her eyes of blue flowers in snow looked into mine with
the keenness of a knife, to detect if I had yet been told aught of her
by my Uncle. And in the answering look of friendliness I gave her was
concealed also a knife of great keenness, which came from a brain with
which I hoped to do to the death that enemy of France. And also I felt
my heart spring to the protection of the honor of great Gouverneur
Faulkner, who had given me a comrade's salute within a few hours past;
and also to the protection of the honor of my house in the person of
my Uncle, the General Robert.
"Indeed, I have much joy that I was given the opportunity to know the
very beautiful Madam Whitworth at so early a time in my life in
America," I made answer to her question in words as I bent also over
her hand for a kiss of salutation.
And then I had a great amusement at the skill with which that Madam
Whitworth brought it to pass that I walked with her from that gate and
left the three new and lovely friends I had made looking after me with
affection and regret at my departure.
"Of course, it was horrid of me to snatch you like that from those
infants, but--I really had the claim to have you for a little time to
hear your impressions of Hayesville, now, didn't I?--you boy with eyes
as beautiful as a girl's!" she said to me as I walked down the wide
street beside her.
"I hope you will always make such claims of me, Madam," I made answer
with the great sweetness with which I was determined for the time to
keep covered the steel knife.
"I know how to claim--and also to reward," she answered me with a
warmth that gave me a great discomfort. "And how did you escape from
the General into feminine society on your very first day? Wasn't there
work for you at the Capitol? I understand that they are expecting that
French Commissioner very soon now." She asked the question with an
indifference that I knew to be false.
"I think it is that I am allowed to get my--what you say in
English?--land legs," I answered with much unconcern.
"Speaking of that Frenchman who is coming down for the mule contracts,
of which by this time you have doubtless heard, I wonder why it is
that the Count of Lasselles, your friend, is sending one of his
lieutenants instead of coming himself. Did he say anything of coming
down later? I wish he would, for to my mind he is one of your greatest
soldiers and I would like to look into his face. That portrait in the
_Review_ is one of the most interesting I have almost ever seen.
Is there any chance of his coming down?" And I was of a great
curiosity at the anxiety in her face about the movements of my
Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles.
"He told me only that he would go to the grain fields of English
Canada, Madam," I answered her by guardedly telling her no more than
my words upon that train had revealed to her.
"If he writes to you, you must tell me about it," she said with great
friendliness. "I am interested in everything that happens to him."
"I will do that, with thanks for your interest," I answered to her
with an air of great devotion. "And behold, is it not the Twin Oaks of
my Uncle I see across the street?" I asked as I stopped in front of
that fine old home that was now mine.
"Come on down the street to my home and I'll give you a cup of tea,"
she invited me with very evident desire for my company for more
questioning.
"I give many thanks, but that is not possible to me, as I must write
notes to my Pierre and old Nannette for the evening railroad. I bid
you good day, beautiful Madam," and again I bent over her hand in a
salutation of departure.
"Then I'll see you again soon," she said and smiled at me as I stood
with my hat in my hand as she went away from me down the street.
"_Vive la France_ and Harpeth America!" I said to myself as I
ascended the steps, was admitted by the Bonbon and conducted up the
stairway to my apartments by good Kizzie, whom I met in the wide hall.
And there ensued an hour of the greatest interest to me as the very
good old slave woman led me from one of the rooms in the large house
to another, with many stories of great interest. At last we came to
that room in which had been deposited my bags and my other equipment
for my journey and there we made a very long pause.
"This is your Grandma Carruthers' room, the General's grandma, and she
was the high-headedest lady of the whole family. That am her portrait
over the mantelshelf. You is jest like her as two peas in the pod and
I reckin I'll have to take a stick to you like I did to yo' father
when he was most growed up and stole all the fruitcake I had done
baked in July fer Christmas," she said with a wide smile of great
affection upon her very large mouth.
"I beg that you put under a key that cake, beloved Madam Kizzie," I
made answer to her with also a laugh.
"Never was no key to nothing in this house, chile," she answered to
me. "I 'lowed to the Gener'l that he had oughter git a lock and key
fer this here flowered silk dress in the glass case on the wall dat de
ole Mis' wore at the ball where she met up with Mas' Carruthers, but
they do say that she comes back and walks as a ha'nt all dressed in it
and these here slippers and stockings and folderols in the carved box
on the table here under her picture. Is you 'fraid of ha'nts, honey?"
"I will not be afraid of this beautiful Grandmamma in this dress of so
great magnificence, my good Kizzie," I made answer to her with more of
courage than I at that moment felt.
"Well, it's only in case of a death in the house that she--Lands
alive, am that my cake burning?" With which exclamation the good
Kizzie left me to the company of the beautiful Grandmamma.
After having unpacked and nicely put away all of the apparel from my
two large bags, the fine Bonbon retired below to answer a summons from
good Kizzie, and left me alone for the first time since I had opened
my eyes that morning while being whirled in the railway train down
into the State of Harpeth. I looked at the hunting watch strapped to
my wrist, which I had worn while traveling, and saw that it was after
five o'clock, and I felt that I must sleep before dining, if for only
a moment.
Thereupon I immediately climbed slowly and awkwardly out of that gray
tweed suit of clothes. I did so wonder what could be the best method
of releasing one's self from trousers. It is a feat of balance to
stand on one foot and remove one portion of the two sides of the
trousers, and yet it is an entanglement to drop the two portions upon
the floor and attempt to step out of them with the shoes upon your
feet. Having succeeded in getting out of them the last night when
prone upon the sleeping shelf of the railroad train, without injury to
them, I again prostrated myself upon the huge bed in my room and
disentangled myself from them while in that position.
After having completely disrobed I took the bath of the temperature of
milk that Nannette is accustomed to administer to me, inserted myself
in the very lovely 'wedding' garments for sleeping that Mr. G. Slade
had so admired, and sank into deep slumber upon the large bed with a
silk covering beflowered like the skirt of a lady's dress upon me.
"Well, well, you young sleepyhead, up and into your clothes, sir. We
are late for the Capitol now," were the words I heard in what seemed
almost the first moment after I had closed my eyes. Behold, my Uncle,
the General Robert, fully dressed, stood beside the bed and a morning
sun was shining through the windows. I had slept through a long night
like a small child upon the bosom of the bed of my beautiful
Grandmamma who smiled down upon me.
"Oh, my Uncle Robert, how much time is it that I have to make my
toilet?" I begged of him as I sat up and made a rubbing of my eyes.
"Less than an hour, sir, to get out of that heathenish toggery that
the men of your generation have substituted for the honest nightshirt,
into proper garments, and eat your breakfast. I'll call you when I am
ready to go."
It was very little more than the hour my Uncle, the General Robert,
had given to me, that I consumed in the accomplishment of a very
difficult toilet in a suit of very beautiful brown cheviot which the
good man in New York from whom I had procured it had said to be for
very especial morning wear. To my good Kizzie I gave a great
uneasiness that I did not consume the very elaborate meal that
resembled a dinner, which she had ready for the Bonbon to serve to me,
and desired only a cup of her coffee and two very small pieces of
white bread called biscuits.
"All the Carruthers men folks is friends with their food, they is,"
she admonished me.
"At luncheon, my Kizzie, just watch me," I said to her in nice United
States words as I departed with my Uncle, the General Robert, to the
Capitol of the State of Harpeth, which is a tall building set on an
equally tall hill.
I found much business awaiting me in the form of making a correct
translation of all of the letters in a very large portfolio, all of
which were pertaining to that very tiresome animal, the mule. But I
made not very much progress, for a very large number of gentlemen came
into the office of my Uncle, the General Robert, and to all of them I
must be presented.
In fact, in all of what remained of that entire week, for most of my
moments in the Capitol I was having very painful shakes of the hand
given to me and receiving assurances of my great resemblance to my
honored father.
All of which I did greatly enjoy, but nothing was of so much pleasure
to me as the visits I accomplished into the office of that Gouverneur
Faulkner with messages of importance from my Uncle, the General
Robert.
It was with a very fine and cold smile of friendliness that he at
first received me, as I stood with humble attention before his desk
upon my first mission to him, but with each message I perceived that
the stars in his eyes, so hid beneath his brows, shone upon me with a
greater interest.
And in observing the many heavy burdens that pressed upon his strong
shoulders until at the close of each day a whiteness was over his very
beautiful face, I grew to desire that I could make some little things
for him easier. I sought to so do and I discovered that it was
possible to beguile many very heavy persons to tell to me what it was
they wished to impose upon him.
I took upon a long ride in the car of my Uncle, the General Robert,
that Road Commissioner, who was making a trouble for my Gouverneur
Faulkner about taking much money from the sum that he desired to be
voted for use on the roads of the State of Harpeth, thus making my
Gouverneur Faulkner not beloved of the people in the country around
the capital city, and when I returned him I had used many beguilements
in the way of flattery about the superiority of the roads of America
to the roads of all of the world, and had also jolted him to such an
extent that he did write a nice letter to my Gouverneur Faulkner
asking that that money be not voted less but even more, so as to "beat
out the world with the roads of Harpeth."
"Good boy," was the reward that I got from my Gouverneur Faulkner for
that feat, and a smile that was of such a loveliness that it lasted me
all of the day.
Also I made a hard work for myself in saving that Gouverneur Faulkner
by much flattery from a large lady who was anxious that he sign a
paper by which all women might vote that no more whiskey for mint
julep should exist. I very willingly put the name of Mr. Robert
Carruthers to the paper, for I do not like those juleps, and I
persuaded the nice large lady that she go in that car of my Uncle, the
General Robert, with me away from the proximity to my chief, the
Gouverneur Faulkner, to a place in the city where we could drink that
ice cream soda water that I do so love.
That lady was very like many other persons who came to see my
Gouverneur and whom I persuaded to make me much exhaustion instead of
him. It was while telling him of the lady and the two very delicious
soda ice creams that he very suddenly interrupted me with a nice smile
that had in it a small warmth like the first glow of a fire, and said:
"Robert, I'm going to ask the General to lend you to me for a couple
of weeks while I am so pressed. Buzz can do more for him than you do
and--and, well, just looking at you and hearing you tell about the
flies you brush from my wearied brow, rests me. Report to me to-morrow
instead of to him. I know it will be all right, for he really needs
Buzz. Now you run home and get ready for one great time at this party
I'm giving to you to-night. And, Robert, remember to tell me
everything the flies say, translated in your United States."
"I will and I go, my Gouverneur Faulkner," I made an answer to him
with a laugh in which I did not show entirely all of the pleasure I
experienced when I discovered I was to be in the place of his
secretary, that fine Buzz Clendenning.
And with much haste I took my departure from the Capitol of the State
of Harpeth to Twin Oaks in the car of my Uncle, the General Robert,
for I knew that upon this evening I must make a new and terrible
toilet and I would require much time thereto.
The good old Nannette and my Governess Madam Fournet have always
taught me that the art of a lovely woman's toilet could not be
performed in less than two hours, and I felt that I had better begin
in the way to which I was accustomed and go as far as I could in that
direction, then finish in the manly manner which would now be of a
necessity to me.
The good Bonbon, whom I now know is called Sam, had laid out my
evening apparel, from the queer dancing shoes with flat heels to a
very stiff and high collar, upon a couch in the huge room, and after
my bath I began to put them upon me with as much rapidity as was
possible to me. For a few moments all went well, even up to having
tucked the fine and very stiff white linen shirt garment into the
silky black cloth trousers, but a trouble arose when I put upon myself
the beautiful long coat that is in the shape of a raven, which the
American gentleman wears for evening toilet. My shoulders were
sufficiently broad to hold it nicely in place and it fell with a
gracefulness upon my hips, but at my waist it collapsed on account of
a slimness in that locality. The fit of the tweed, which had been like
to that of a bag, had been very correct and had not revealed the curve
of waist, but now it was manifest.
"What is it that you must do, Roberta, to disguise your roundness of a
young woman? All is lost!" I said to myself in despair. Then a thought
came to me. I had never been habited in a corset in my life on account
of a prejudice entertained to that garment by my Nannette, but I
bethought me to remove that shirt and also the silk one underneath and
swath about me one of the heavy towels of the bath. Immediately I did
so and fastened it in place with a needle and thread from the
gentleman's traveling case that I found in the pocket of my bag. Over
it I then drew the silk undershirt and then that of fine linen, before
again putting myself into the black raven's dress. Behold, all
roundness and slimness had disappeared and when the collar was added I
could see that I was as beautifully habited as either Mr. Peter
Scudder or that Mr. Saint Louis of the boat.
"Roberta of Grez and Bye," I said to myself as I looked into the tall
mirror, "it is indeed a sorrow to you that you cannot make your
courtesy to that Gouverneur Faulkner habited in the white lace and
tulle garment that is in those trunks which you have lost in that New
York, with your throat that your Russian Cossack has said was like a
lily at the blush of dawn, bare to his eyes, but you are a nice,
clean, upstanding American boy who can be his friend. You must be and
you must play the game."
And in the language of that Mr. Willie Saint Louis, it was "some
game."