Having made her purchase, Madame very elegantly bid the gallant
merchant good morning, hoping he would not forget her address, and call
round when it suited his convenience. Mr. Forsheu, his hat doffed,
escorted her to her carriage, into the amber-colored lining of which
she gracefully settled her majestic self, as a slightly-browned
gentleman in livery closed the bright door, took her order with servile
bows, and having motioned to the coachman, the carriage rolled away,
and was soon out of sight. Monsieur Grouski, it may be well to add
here, was discovered curled up in one corner; he smiled, and extended
his hand very graciously to Madame as she entered the carriage.
Like a pilgrim in search of some promised land, Molly adjusted her
crutch, and over the sandy road trudged, with truculent face, to her
new home, humming to herself “dah-is-a-time-a-comin, den da Lor’ he be
good!!”
On the following morning, Lady Swiggs received her account current, Mr.
Forsheu being exceedingly prompt in business. There was one hundred and
twenty-nine days’ feed, commissions, advertising, and sundry smaller
charges, which reduced the net balance to one hundred and three
dollars. Mrs. Swiggs, with an infatuation kindred to that which finds
the State blind to its own poverty, stubbornly refused to believe her
slaves had declined in value. Hence she received the vender’s account
with surprise and dissatisfaction. However, the sale being binding, she
gradually accommodated her mind to the result, and began evolving the
question of how to make the amount meet the emergency. She must visit
the great city of New York; she must see Sister Slocum face to face;
Brother Spyke’s mission must have fifty dollars; how much could she
give the Tract Society? Here was a dilemma-one which might have excited
the sympathy of the House of the “Foreign Missions.” The dignity of the
family, too, was at stake. Many sleepless nights did this difficult
matter cause the august old lady. She thought of selling another
cripple! Oh! that would not do. Mr. Keepum had a lien on them; Mr.
Keepum was a man of iron-heart. Suddenly it flashed upon her mind that
she had already been guilty of a legal wrong in selling old Molly. Mr.
Soloman had doubtless described her with legal minuteness in the bond
of security for the two hundred dollars. Her decrepid form; her
corrugated face; her heavy lip; her crutch, and her piety-everything,
in a word, but her starvation, had been set down. Well! Mr. Soloman
might, she thought, overlook in the multiplicity of business so small a
discrepancy. She, too, had a large circle of distinguished friends. If
the worst came to the worst she would appeal to them. There, too, was
Sir Sunderland Swiggs’ portrait, very valuable for its age; she might
sell the family arms, such things being in great demand with the
chivalry; her antique furniture, too, was highly prized by our first
families. Thus Lady Swiggs contemplated these mighty relics of past
greatness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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