in New York, who, after telling her of his having heard that Colonel
Forrester would shortly be in Philadelphia, jestingly proposed her
attempting the conquest of his heart, as he was not only a gallant
officer, but a man of high character and noble appearance. Sophia showed
this letter to no one, but she read it twice over,--the first time with
a smile, the second time with a blush. She had heard much of Colonel
Forrester, of whom "report spoke goldenly;" and several times in New
York she had seen him in public, but had never chanced to meet him,
except once at a very large party, when accident had prevented his
introduction to her.
Harriet and Caroline were almost wild with delight at the prospect of an
intimate acquaintance with this accomplished warrior; but their joy was
somewhat damped by the arrival of a second letter from Mrs. Forrester,
in which she designated the exact time when she might be expected at the
house of her friend, but said that her son, having some business that
would detain him several weeks in Philadelphia, would not trespass on
the hospitality of Mrs. Darnel, but had made arrangements for staying at
a hotel.
"He is perfectly right," said Sophia. "I concluded, of course, that he
would do so. Few gentlemen, when in a city, like to stay at private
houses, if they can be accommodated elsewhere."
"At all events," said Harriet, "his mother will be with us, and he
_must_ come every day to pay his duty to her."
"That's some comfort," pursued Caroline; "and, no doubt, we shall see a
great deal of him, one way or another."
Sophia Clements, though scarcely conscious of it herself, felt a secret
desire of appearing to advantage in the eyes of Colonel Forrester. Her
two nieces felt the same desire, except that they made it no secret.
They had worked up their imaginations to the persuasion that Colonel
Forrester was the finest man in the army, and therefore the finest in
the world, and they anticipated the delight of his being their frequent
guest during the stay of his mother; of his morning visits, and his
evening visits; of having him at dinner and at tea; of planning
excursions with him to show Mrs. Forrester the lions of the city and its
vicinity, when, of course, he would be their escort. They imagined him
walking in Chestnut street with them, and sitting in the same box at the
theatre. Be it remembered, that during the war, officers in the regular
service were seldom seen out of uniform, and even when habited as
citizens they were always distinguished by that "gallant badge, the dear
cockade." Perhaps, also, Colonel Forrester and his mother might
accompany them to a ball, and they would then have the glory of dancing
with an officer so elegant as entirely to efface their mortification at
their former military partners. We need not say that Messrs. Wilson and
Thomson were again at a discount.
The girls were taken with an immediate want of various new articles of
dress, and had their attention been less engaged by the activity of
their preparations for "looking their very best," the time that
intervened between the receipt of Mrs. Forrester's last letter and that
appointed for their arrival, would have seemed of length immeasurable.
At last came the eve of the day on which these all-important strangers
were expected. As they quitted the tea-table, one of the young ladies
remarked:--
"By this time to-morrow, we shall have seen Col. Forrester and his
mother."
"As to the mother," observed Mrs. Darnel, "I am very sure that were it
not for the son, the expectation of _her_ visit would excite but little
interest in either of you--though, as you have often heard me say, she
is a very agreeable and highly intelligent woman."
"We can easily perceive it from her letters," said Sophia.
Mrs. Darnel, complaining of the headache, retired for the night very
early in the evening, desiring that she might not be disturbed. Sophia
took some needle-work, and each of the girls tried a book, but were too
restless and unsettled to read, and they alternately walked about the
room or extended themselves on the sofas. It was a dark, stormy
night--the windows rattled, and the pattering of the rain against the
glass was plainly heard through the inside shutters.
"I wish to-morrow evening were come," said Harriet, "and that the
introduction was over, and we were all seated round the tea-table."
"For my part," said Caroline, "I have a presentiment that everything
will go on well. We will all do _notre possible_ to look our very best;
mamma will take care that the rooms and the table shall be arranged in
admirable style--and if you and I can only manage to talk and behave
just as we ought, there is nothing to fear."
"I hope, indeed, that Colonel Forrester will like us," rejoined Harriet,
"and be induced to continue his visits when he again comes to
Philadelphia."
"Much depends on the first impression," remarked Miss Clements.
"Now let us just imagine over the arrival of Colonel and Mrs.
Forrester," said Harriet.--"The lamps lighted, and the fires burning
brightly in both rooms. In the back parlour, the tea-table set out with
the French china and the chased plate;--mamma sitting in an arm-chair
with her feet on one of the embroidered footstools, dressed in her
queen's-gray lutestring, and one of her Brussels lace caps--I suppose
the one trimmed with white riband. Aunt Sophia in her myrtle-green
levantine, seated at the marble table in the front parlour, holding in
her hand an elegant book--for instance, her beautiful copy of the
Pleasures of Hope. Caroline and I will wear our new scarlet Canton
crapes with the satin trimming, and our coral ornaments."
"No, no," rejoined Caroline; "we resemble each other so much that, if we
are dressed alike, Colonel Forrester will find too great a sameness in
us. Do you wear your scarlet crape, and I will put on my white muslin
with the six narrow flounces headed with insertion.[75] I have reserved
it clean on purpose; and I think Aunt Sophia had best wear her last new
coat dress, with the lace trimming. It is so becoming to her with a pink
silk handkerchief tied under the collar."
[Footnote 75: In those days, white muslin dresses were worn both in
winter and summer.]
"Well," said Harriet, "I will be seated at the table also, not reading,
but working a pair of cambric cuffs; my mother-of-pearl work-box before
me."
"And I," resumed Caroline, "will be found at the piano, turning over the
leaves of a new music-book. Every one looks their best on a music-stool;
it shows the figure to advantage, and the dress falls in such graceful
folds."
"My hair shall be _à la Grecque_," said Harriet.
"And mine in the Vandyke style," said Caroline.
"But," asked Sophia, "are the strangers on entering the room to find us
all sitting up in form, and arranged for effect, like actresses waiting
for the bell to ring and the curtain to rise? How can you pretend that
you were not the least aware of their approach till they were actually
in the room, when you know very well that you will be impatiently
listening to the sound of every carriage till you hear theirs stop at
the door. Never, certainly, will a visiter come _less_ unexpectedly than
Colonel Forrester."
"But you know, aunt," replied Caroline, "how much depends on a first
impression."
"Well," resumed Harriet, "I have thought of another way. As soon as they
enter the front parlour let us all advance through the folding doors to
meet them,--mamma leading the van with Aunt Sophy, Caroline and I arm in
arm behind."
"No," said Caroline, "let us not be close together, so that the same
glance can take in both."
"Then," rejoined Harriet, "I will be a few steps in advance of you. You,
as the youngest, should be timid, and should hold back a little; while
I, as the eldest, should have more self-possession. Variety is
advisable."
"But I cannot be timid all the time," said Caroline; "that will require
too great an effort."
"We must not laugh and talk too much at first," observed Harriet; "but
all we say must be both sprightly and sensible. However, we shall have
the whole day to-morrow to make our final arrangements; and I think I am
still in favour of the sitting reception."
"Whether he has a sitting or a standing reception," said Caroline, "let
the colonel have as striking a _coup d'oeil_ as possible."
Their brother Robert had gone to the theatre by invitation of a family
with whose sons he was intimate; and Sophia Clements, who was desirous
of finishing a highly interesting book, and who was not in the least
addicted to sleepiness, volunteered to sit up for him.
"I think," said she, "as the hour is too late, and the night too stormy
to expect any visiters, I will go and exchange my dress for a wrapper; I
can then be perfectly at my ease while sitting up for Robert. I will
first ring for Peter to move one of the sofas to the side of the fire,
and to place the reading-lamp upon the table before it."
She did so; and in a short time she came down in a loose double wrapper,
and with her curls pinned up.
"Really, Aunt Sophy," said Harriet, "that is an excellent idea.
Caroline, let us pin our hair here in the parlour before the
mantel-glass; that will be better still--our own toilet table is far
from the fire."
"True," replied Caroline, "and you are always so long at the
dressing-glass that it is an age before I can get to it,--but here, if
there were even four of us, we could all stand in a row and arrange our
hair together before this long mirror."
They sent up for their combs and brushes, their boxes of hair pins, and
their flannel dressing-gowns, and placed candles on the mantel-piece,
preparing for what they called "clear comfort;" while Sophia reclined on
the sofa by the fire, deeply engaged with Miss Owenson's new novel. The
girls, having poured some cologne-water into a glass, wetted out all
their ringlets with it, preparatory to the grand curling that was to be
undertaken for the morrow, and which was not to be opened out during the
day.
Harriet had just taken out her comb and untied her long hair behind, to
rehearse its arrangement for the ensuing evening, when a ring was heard
at the street-door.
"That's Bob," said Caroline. "He is very early from the theatre; I
wonder he should come home without staying for the farce."
Presently their black man, with a grin of high delight, threw open the
parlour-door, and ushered in an elegant-looking officer, who, having
left his cloak in the hall, appeared before them in full uniform,--and
they saw at a glance that it could be no one but Colonel Forrester.
Words cannot describe the consternation and surprise of the young
ladies. Sophia dropped her book, and started on her feet; Harriet
throwing down her comb so that it broke in pieces on the hearth,
retreated to a chair that stood behind the sofa with such precipitation
as nearly to overset the table and the reading-lamp; and Caroline,
scattering her hair-pins over the carpet, knew not where she was, till
she found herself on a footstool in one of the recesses. Alas! for the
_coup d'oeil_ and the first impression! Instead of heads _à la
Grecque_, or in the Vandyke fashion, their whole _chevelure_ was
disordered, and their side-locks straightened into long strings, and
clinging, wet and ungraceful, to their cheeks. Instead of scarlet crape
frocks trimmed with satin, or white muslin with six flounces, their
figures were enveloped in flannel dressing-gowns. All question of the
sitting reception, or the standing reception was now at an end; for
Harriet was hiding unsuccessfully behind the sofa, and Caroline
crouching on a footstool in the corner, trying to conceal a large rent
which in her hurry she had given to her flannel gown. Resolutions never
again to make their toilet in the parlour, regret that they had not
thought of flying into the adjoining room and shutting the folding-doors
after them, and wonder at the colonel's premature appearance, all passed
through their minds with the rapidity of lightning.
Sophia, after a moment's hesitation, rallied from her confusion; and her
natural good sense and ease of manner came to her aid, as she curtsied
to the stranger and pointed to a seat. Colonel Forrester, who saw at
once that he had come at an unlucky season, after introducing himself,
and saying he presumed he was addressing Miss Clements, proceeded
immediately to explain the reason of his being a day in advance of the
appointed time. He stated that his mother, on account of the dangerous
illness of an intimate and valued friend, had been obliged to postpone
her visit to Philadelphia; and that in consequence of an order from the
war-office, which required his immediate presence at Washington, he had
been obliged to leave Boston a day sooner than he intended, and to
travel with all the rapidity that the public conveyances would admit. He
had arrived about eight o'clock at the Mansion House Hotel, where a
dinner was given that evening to a distinguished naval commander.
Colonel Forrester had immediately been waited upon by a deputation from
the dinner-table, with a pressing invitation to join the company; and
this (though he did not then allude to it) was the reason of his being
in full uniform. Compelled to pursue his journey very early in the
morning, he had taken the opportunity, as soon as he could get away from
the table, of paying his compliments to the ladies, and bringing with
him a letter to Miss Clements from her brother, whom he had seen in
passing through New York, and one from his mother for Mrs. Darnel.
Grievously chagrined and mortified as the girls were, they listened
admiringly to the clear and handsome manner in which the colonel made
his explanation, and they more than ever regretted that all their
castles in the air were demolished, and that after this unlucky visit he
would probably have no desire to see them again, when he came to
Philadelphia on his return from Washington.
Sophia, who saw at once that she had to deal with a man of tact and
consideration, felt that an apology for the disorder in which he had
found them was to him totally unnecessary, being persuaded that he
already comprehended all she could have said in the way of excuse; and,
with true civility, she forbore to make any allusion which might remind
him that his unexpected visit had caused them discomfiture or annoyance.
Kindred spirits soon understand each other.
The girls were amazed to see their aunt so cool and so much at her ease,
when her beautiful hair was pinned up, and her beautiful form disfigured
by a large wrapper. But the colonel had penetration enough to perceive
that under all these disadvantages she was an elegant woman.
Harriet and Caroline, though longing to join in the conversation, made
signs to Sophia not to introduce them to the colonel, as they could not
endure the idea of his attention being distinctly attracted towards
them; and they perceived that in the fear of adding to their
embarrassment he seemed to avoid noticing their presence. But they
contrived to exchange signals of approbation at his wearing the staff
uniform, with its golden-looking bullet buttons, and its shining star on
each extremity of the coat skirts.
Colonel Forrester now began to admire a picture that hung over the
piano, and Sophia took a candle and conducted him to it, that while his
back was towards them, the girls might have an opportunity of rising and
slipping out of the room. Of this lucky chance they instantly and with
much adroitness availed themselves, ran up stairs, and in a shorter time
than they had ever before changed their dresses, they came back with
frocks on,--not, however, the scarlet crape, and the six-flounced
muslin,--and with their hair nicely but simply arranged, by parting it
on their foreheads in front, and turning it in a band round their combs
behind. Sophia introduced them to the colonel, and they were now able to
speak; but were still too much discomposed by their recent fright to be
very fluent, or much at their ease.
In the mean time, their brother Robert had come home from the theatre;
and the boy's eyes sparkled, when, on Miss Clements presenting her
nephew, the colonel shook hands with him.
Colonel Forrester began to find it difficult to depart, and he was
easily induced to stay and partake of the little collation that was on
the table waiting the return of Robert; and the ease and grace with
which Sophia did the honours of their _petit souper_ completely charmed
him.
In conversation, Colonel Forrester was certainly "both sprightly and
sensible." He had read much, seen much, and was peculiarly happy in his
mode of expressing himself. Time flew as if
"----birds of paradise had lent
Their plumage to his wings,"
and when the colonel took out his watch and discovered the lateness of
the hour, the ladies _looked_ their surprise, and his was denoted by a
very handsome compliment to them. He then concluded his visit by
requesting permission to resume their acquaintance on his return from
Washington.
As soon as he had finally departed, and Robert had locked the door after
him, the girls broke out into a rhapsody of admiration, mingled with
regret at the state in which he had surprised them, and the entire
failure of their first impression, which they feared had not been
retrieved by their second appearance in an improved style.
"Well," said Bob, "yours may have been a failure, but I am sure that was
not the case with Aunt Sophia. It is plain enough that the colonel's
impression of _her_ turned out very well indeed, notwithstanding that
she kept on her wrapper, and had her hair pinned up all the time. Aunt
Sophy is a person that a man may fall in love with in any dress; that
is, a man who has as much sense as herself."
"As I am going to be a midshipman," continued Robert, "there is one
thing I particularly like in Colonel Forrester, which is, that he is not
in the least jealous of the navy. How handsomely he spoke of the
sea-officers!"
"A man of sense and feeling," observed Sophia, "is rarely susceptible of
so mean a vice as jealousy."
"How animated he looked," pursued the boy, "when he spoke of Midshipman
Hamilton arriving at Washington with the news of the capture of the
Macedonian, and going in his travelling dress to Mrs. Madison's ball, in
search of his father the secretary of the navy, to show his despatches
to him, and the flag of the British frigate to the President, carrying
it with him for the purpose. No wonder the dancing ceased, and the
ladies cried."
"Did you observe him," said Harriet, "when he talked of Captain
Crowninshield going to Halifax to bring home the body of poor Lawrence,
in a vessel of his own, manned entirely by twelve sea-captains, who
volunteered for the purpose?"
"And did not you like him," said Caroline, "when he was speaking of
Perry removing in his boat from the Lawrence to the Niagara, in the
thickest of the battle, and carrying his flag on his arm? And when he
praised the gallant seamanship of Captain Morris, when he took advantage
of a tremendous tempest to sail out of the Chesapeake, where he had been
so long blockaded by the enemy, passing fearlessly through the midst of
the British squadron, not one of them daring, on account of the storm,
to follow him to sea and fight him."
"The eloquence of the colonel seems to have inspired you all," said
Sophia.
"Aunt Sophy," remarked Caroline, "at supper to-night, did you feel as
firm in your resolution of never marrying an officer, as you were at the
tea-table?"
"Colonel Forrester is not the only agreeable man I have met with,"
replied Miss Clements, evading the question. "It has been my good
fortune to know many gentlemen that were handsome and intelligent."
"Well," said Robert, "one thing is plain enough to me, that Colonel
Forrester is exactly suited to Aunt Sophy, and he knows it himself."
"And now, Bob," said Sophia, blushing, "light your candle, and go to
bed."
"Bob is right," observed Harriet, after he had gone; "I saw in a moment
that such a man as Colonel Forrester would never fancy _me_."
"Nor me," said Caroline.
Sophia kissed her nieces with more kindness than usual as they bade her
good-night. And, they, retired to bed impatient for the arrival of
morning, that they might give their mother all the particulars of
Colonel Forrester's visit.
In a fortnight, he returned from Washington, and this time he made his
first visit in the morning, and saw all the ladies to the best
advantage. His admiration of Sophia admitted not of a doubt. Being
employed for the remainder of the winter on some military duty in
Philadelphia, he went for a few days to Boston and brought his mother
(whose friend had recovered from her illness), to fulfil her expected
visit. The girls found Mrs. Forrester a charming woman, and, fortunately
for them, very indulgent to the follies of young people. The colonel
introduced to them various officers that were passing through the city,
so that they really _did_ walk in Chestnut street with gentlemen in
uniform, and sat in boxes with them at the theatre.
Before the winter was over, Sophia Clements had promised to become Mrs.
Forrester as soon as the war was at an end. This fortunate event took
place sooner than was expected, the treaty having been made, though it
did not arrive, previous to the victory of New Orleans. The colonel
immediately claimed the hand of the lady, and the wedding and its
preparations, by engaging the attention of Harriet and Caroline, enabled
them to conform to the return of peace with more philosophy than was
expected. The streets no longer resounded with drums and fifes. Most of
the volunteer corps disbanded themselves--the army was reduced, and the
officers left off wearing their uniforms, except when at their posts.
The military ardour of the young ladies rapidly subsided--citizens were
again at par--and Harriet and Caroline began to look with complacence on
their old admirers. Messrs. Wilson and Thomson were once more in
favour--and, seeing the coast clear, they, in process of time, ventured
to propose, and were thankfully accepted.
PETER JONES.
A SKETCH FROM LIFE.
"Let the players be cared for."--SHAKSPEARE.
In the early part of the present century, there lived in one of the long
streets in the south-eastern section of Philadelphia, a tailor, whom we
shall introduce to our readers by the name of Peter Jones. His
old-fashioned residence, which (strange to say) is yet standing, was not
then put out of countenance by the modern-built structures that have
since been run up on each side of it. There were, it is true, three or
four new houses nearly opposite, all of them tenanted by genteel
families--but Peter's side of the way (at least for the length of a
square), was yet untouched by the hand of improvement, his own domicile
being the largest and best in the row, and moreover of three stories--an
advantage not possessed by the others. It had a square-topped door
lighted by three small square panes--the parlour window (there was but
one) being glazed to match, also with small glass and heavy wood work.
The blue-painted wooden door-step was furnished with a very convenient
seat, denominated the porch, and sheltered above by a moss-grown
pent-house. The whole front of the mansion was shaded by an enormous
buttonwood tree, that looked as if it had been spared from the primeval
forest by the axe of a companion of William Penn. The house, indeed,
might have been the country seat of one of the early colonists. Under
this tree stood a pump of excellent water.