On their way home from Havana, Mr. Graham had proposed stopping a day
in Cincinnati, taking rooms at the Burnet House, where the first
individual whom they saw at the table was our old acquaintance, Joel
Slocum. Not finding his business as profitable in Lexington as he could
wish, he had recently removed to Cincinnati. Here his aspiring mind had
prompted him to board at the Burnet House, until he’d seen the “Ohio
elephant,” when he intended retiring to one of the cheaper
boarding-houses. The moment he saw Mr. Graham, a grin of recognition
became visible on his face, bringing to view a row of very long and
very yellow teeth, apparently unacquainted with the use of either water
or brush.
“Who is that loafer who seems to know you?” asked Mrs. Graham,
directing her husband’s attention toward Joel.
Mr. Graham replied that “he had once seen him in Lexington, and that he
took daguerreotypes.”
The moment dinner was over, Joel came forward, going through with one
of his wonderful bows, and exclaiming, with his peculiar nasal twang,
“Now you don’t say this is you. And this is your old woman, I s’pose.
Miss Graham, how-dy-du? Darned if you don’t look like Aunt Nancy, only
she’s lean and you are squatty. S’posin’ you give me a call and get
your picters taken. I didn’t get an all-killin’ sight of practice in
Lexington, for the plaguy greenhorns didn’t know enough to patternize
me, and ’taint a tarnation sight better here; but you,” turning to Mr.
Graham, “employed me once, and pretended to be suited.”
Mr. Graham turned scarlet, and saying something in an undertone to
Joel, gave his wife his arm, leading her to their room, where he made
an excuse for leaving her awhile. Looking from the window a moment
after, Mrs. Graham saw him walking down the street in close
conversation with Joel, who, by the way of showing his importance,
lifted his white beaver to almost every man he met. Instantly her
curiosity was roused, and when her husband returned, every motion of
his was narrowly watched, the espionage resulting in the conviction
that there was something in his possession which he did not wish her to
see. Once, when she came unexpectedly upon him, he hastily thrust
something into his pocket, appearing so much confused that she resolved
to ferret out the secret.
Accordingly, that night, when assured by his heavy breathing that he
was asleep, she crept softly from his side, and rummaging his pockets,
found a daguerreotype, which by the full moonlight she saw was a
_fac-simile_ of the one she had in her possession. The arrangement of
the hair—everything—was the same, and utterly confounded, she stood
gazing first at one and then at the other, wondering what it meant.
Could ’Lena be in the city? She thought not, and even if she were, the
last daguerreotype was not so much like her, she fancied, as the first.
At all events, she did not dare secrete it as she had done its
companion, and stealthily returning it to its place, she crept back to
bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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