The Uncle of an Angel: 1891Janvier, Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone)
General
The Uncle of an Angel: 1891
Janvier, Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone)
United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
“To Narragansett, you mean? Oh, certainly. From what several people have
told me about Narragansett I think that it must be quite entertaining,
and I want to see it. And of course, Uncle Hutchinson, even if I didn’t
care about it at all, I should go all the same; for I want to fall in
exactly with your plans and put you to as little trouble as possible,
you know. For if your angel wasn’t willing to be self-sacrificing, she
really wouldn’t be an angel at all.”
Pleasing though this statement of Early Christian sentiment was,
it struck Mr. Port--as he subsequently revolved it slowly in his
slowly-moving mind--as lacking a little on the side of practicality;
for Miss Lee, so far, unquestionably had contrived to upset with a fine
equanimity every one of his plans that was not absolutely identical with
her own.
III.
On the whole, the Saratoga expedition was not a success. Even on the
journey, coming up by the limited train, Miss Lee was not favorably
impressed by the appearance of her fellow-passengers. Nearly all of
the men in the car (most of whom immediately betook themselves to the
bar-room, euphoniously styled a buffet, at the head of the train) were
of a type that would have suggested to one accustomed to American life
that variety of it which is found seated in the high places of the
government of the city of New York; and the aggressively dressed and too
abundantly jewelled female companions of these men, heavily built,
heavy browed, with faces marked in hard lines, and with aggressive
eyes schooled to look out upon the world with a necessarily emphatic
self-assertion, were of a type that, without special knowledge of
American ways, was entirely recognizable. Albeit Miss Lee, having spent
much time in the mixed society of various European watering-places, was
not by any means an unsophisticated young person, and was not at all a
squeamish one, she was sensibly relieved by finding that the chair
next to hers was occupied by a silvery-haired old lady of the most
unquestionable respectability; and her composure was further restored,
presently, by the return to his chair, on the other side of her of Mr.
Port: who had betaken himself to what the conductor had told him was the
smoking-room, and who, finding himself in a bar-room, surrounded by a
throng of hard-drinking, foul-mouthed men, had sacrificed his
much-loved cigar in order to free himself from such distinctly offensive
surroundings.
At their hotel, and elsewhere, Miss Lee and her uncle encountered many
of their fellow-passengers by the limited train, together with others of
a like sort which previous trains had brought thither; and while, on the
whole, these were about balanced by a more desirable class of visitors,
they were in such force as to give to the life of the place a very
positive tone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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