Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862Morford, Henry
History
Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862
Morford, Henry
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
"No, mother, determination!" said the young girl, springing to her feet
with an energy which was really not an ordinary part of her
nature,--under the impression that now, if ever, was the time to give
utterance to her true sentiments. "Father used the right
word--determination! I cannot marry Boad Bancker, and I won't! There you
have it!"
There was nothing classic or even romantic in the young lady's mode of
expression, or the nickname which she bestowed upon her would-be lover;
but they were at least natural, which is something gained in this world
of pretences and deceptions.
"You won't? and why, I should like to know?" broke in the Judge, for the
moment surprised out of the violence that might have resulted, by the
very audacity of the declaration.
"Because he is hateful, and ugly, and I do not like him, and--" answered
Miss Emily, with a charming return to the system of the school-girl
which she had just been called by her father.
"Silence!" thundered Judge Owen, who had recovered from the blow and
thought that he had a refractory juryman or an insolent attorney to put
down. "Silence! I have had enough of this. John Boadley Bancker is the
man I have selected for your husband. He belongs to an excellent family,
has wealth enough to keep a wife in comfort and even luxury, and has
lately proved himself a true patriot by springing up at the call of the
President--" (Judge Owen had by this time forgotten his indignation, and
fancied himself for the moment addressing an immense assemblage at Union
Square or in the Park)--"by springing up at the call of the President,
girding on his--"
"--Shoulder-straps!" put in Miss Emily, who had recovered from her
agitation and began to be mischievous the moment her father began to be
didactic and ponderous. Whether he heard the interpolation or not, is
somewhat doubtful.
"--Girding on his sword," the Judge went on, "and marching--"
"--Up and down Broadway!" put in the young girl, in a second
parenthesis, not more audible than the other.
"That is, he has not marched, but is going to march to the seat of war,
to fight for--"
"--The niggers!" again and finally interpolated the incorrigible, who
had somehow managed to get a peep behind the curtain of national affairs
and to see towards what the great struggle seemed tending.
"--For the defence of the country," the Judge concluded his peroration.
Then he went on with the pith of his remark, to the effect that the girl
who could be mad enough and disobedient enough to refuse the hand of
such a man as _that_, might go to--mumble--mumble--mumble--for she could
never more be daughter of his!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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