Walter Burton’s demeanor toward his young wife might, for all men, serve
as a model of devoted, thoughtful deportment on the part of husbands.
To amuse and entertain her seemed his all-absorbing idea and object. To
exercise his brilliant mental gifts in gay and enlivening conversation
was his chief pleasure. To use all the great musical talent that he
possessed, to drive any momentary shadow of sadness from her spirit. To
stroll about the garden in the moonlight, again whispering those words of
love by which he had first won her, was blissful occupation to him.
Even good old Uncle John in far-off Haiti imbibed the spirit that seemed
all pervading in the realm about the young matron. Great hampers of
tropical fruits, plants and flowers came by trebly-paid expressage from
the West Indies, speed alone being considered. They must be fresh when
offered to Lucy. Then, too, almost daily messages came over the cable
from Haiti, “How are all today,” signed “John,” and it was ordered at
the office that each day should go a message to Port au Prince, unless
especially forbidden, saying, “All is well,” this to be signed “James.”
Mrs. Church, the most sedate, composed and stately of old gentlewomen,
too, is in a flutter of suppressed excitement, frequently closeted in
deep and mysterious consultations with medical men and motherly looking
women; giving strange orders about the preparation of certain dishes for
the table, driving the chef almost distracted by forbidding sauces that
should always accompany some favorite entree of that tyrant.
A suite of rooms in the Dunlap mansion has been newly decorated; nothing
like these decorations has ever been seen before in Boston. In elegance,
taste and beauty they are the _ne plus ultra_ of decorative art. One,
while in the sacred precincts of the recently remodeled apartments, might
readily imagine that spring had been captured and fettered here to make
its sweet, bright presence perpetual in this favored place. Colors of the
tinted sunbeam mingled with the peach blossom’s tender shade to make the
spot a bower of beauty wherein a smiling cupid might pause and fold his
wings to slumber, forgetful of his couch of pink pearl shell.
The cultured, artistic, delicate taste of Boston’s _arbiter elegantiarum_
never produced anything approaching the exquisite blending of colors and
unique, airy, harmonious fittings seen in this, the ideal conception of
the abode of angels.
The delicacy and tenderness of Lucy’s refined and loving spirit
contributed to create an indefinable feeling that this was the chosen
spot where innocence, purity and love should seek repose. Her womanly
instinct had added soft shadings to art’s perfect handiwork.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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