The procession was to leave Shayton at noon precisely; and about
half-past eleven, a magnificent new carriage, ornamented with massive
silver, and drawn by two superb gray horses, whose new harness glittered
in the sunshine, rolled up to Mrs. Ogden's door. On the box sat a fine
coachman in livery, and a footman jumped down from behind to knock at
the Milend front door.
Just at the same moment Mr. Jacob Ogden walked quietly up the drive, and
when the door opened he walked in. The splendid servants respectfully
saluted him.
The Shayton tailor had surpassed himself for this occasion, and Mr.
Jacob looked so well dressed that anybody would have thought his clothes
had been made at Sootythorn. He wore kid gloves also.
But however well dressed a man may be, his splendor can never be
comparable to a lady's, especially such a lady as Mrs. Ogden, who had a
fearlessness in the use of colors like that which distinguished our
younger painters twenty years ago. She always managed to adorn herself
so that every thing about her looked bright, except her complexion and
her eyes. Behold her as the door opens! The Queen in all her glory is
not so fine as the mistress of Milend! What shining splendor! What
dazzling effulgence! A blind man said that he imagined scarlet to be as
the sound of a trumpet; but the vision of Mrs. Ogden was equal to a
whole brass band.
"Why, and whose cayridge is this 'ere, Jacob?"
"Cayridge, mother? It's nobbut a two-horse fly, fro' Manchester, new
painted."
The fact was, it was Mrs. Ogden's own carriage, purchased by her son
without her knowledge or consent; but, to avoid a scene before his new
domestics, he preferred the above amiable little fiction. So Mrs. Ogden
stepped for the first time into her carriage without being aware that
she had attained that great object of the _nouveau riche_. There was no
danger that she would recognize the armorial bearings which decorated
the panels and the harness. Jacob himself had not known them a month
before, but he had sent "name and county" to a heraldic establishment in
Lincoln's Inn Fields; and, as his letter had been duly accompanied by a
post-office order, three days afterwards he had received a very neat
drawing of his coat of arms, emblazoned in azure and gold. It was
cheaper than going to the College of Arms, and did just as well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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