Home as Found, James Fenimore Cooper [bookreader txt] 📗

those

you think good enough to be visited by Mrs. Jared Jarvis."

 

"What I mean is, that no one in New-York has a right to think

himself, or herself, better than ourselves."

 

"Better?--In what sense better?"

 

"In such a sense as to induce them to think themselves too good to

visit us."

 

"That may be your opinion, my dear, but others may judge differently.

You clearly think yourself too good to visit Mrs. Onion, the grocer's

wife, who is a capital woman in her way; and how do we know that

certain people may not fancy we are not quite refined enough for

them? Refinement is a positive thing, Mrs. Jarvis, and one that has

much more influence on the pleasures of association than money. We

may want a hundred little perfections that escape our ignorance, and

which those who are trained to such matters deem essentials."

 

"I never met with a man of so little social spirit, Mr. Jarvis!

Really, you are quite unsuited to be a citizen of a republican

country."

 

"Republican!--I do not really see what republican has to do with the

question. In the first place, it is a droll word for _you_ to use in

this sense at least; for, taking your own meaning of the term, you

are as anti-republican as any woman I know. But a republic does not

necessarily infer equality of condition, or even equality of

rights,--it meaning merely the substitution of the right of the

commonwealth for the right of a prince. Had you said a democracy

there would have been some plausibility in using the word, though

even then its application would have been illogical. If I am a

freeman and a democrat, I hope I have the justice to allow others to

be just as free and democratic as I am myself."

 

"And who wishes the contrary?--all I ask is a claim to be considered

a fit associate for anybody in this country--in these United States

of America."

 

"I would quit these United States of America next week, if I thought

there existed any necessity for such an intolerable state of things."

 

"Mr. Jarvis!--and you, too, one of the Committee of Tammany Hall!"

 

"Yes, Mrs. Jarvis, and I one of the Committee of Tammany Hall! What,

do you think I want the three thousand six hundred and fifty carmen

running in and out of my house, with their tobacco saliva and pipes,

all day long?"

 

"Who is thinking of your carmen and grocers!--I speak now only of

genteel people."

 

"In other words, my dear, you are thinking only of those whom you

fancy to have the advantage of you, and keep those who think of you

in the same way, quite out of sight This is not my democracy and

freedom. I believe that it requires two people to make a bargain, and

although I may consent to dine with A----, if A---- will not consent

to dine with me, there is an end of the matter."

 

"Now, you have come to a case in point. You often dined with Mr.

Effingham before he went abroad, and yet you would never allow me to

ask Mr. Effingham to dine with us. That is what I call meanness."

 

"It might be so, indeed, if it were done to save my money. I dined

with Mr. Effingham because I like him; because he was an old

neighbour; because he asked me, and because I found a pleasure in the

quiet elegance of his table and society; and I did not ask him to

dine with me, because I was satisfied he would be better pleased with

such a tacit acknowledgement of his superiority in this respect, than

by any bustling and ungraceful efforts to pay him in kind. Edward

Effingham has dinners enough, without keeping a debtor and credit

account with his guests, which is rather too New-Yorkish, even for

me."

 

"Bustling and ungraceful!" repeated Mrs. Jarvis, bitterly; "I do not

know that you are at all more bustling and ungraceful than Mr.

Effingham himself."

 

"No, my dear, I am a quiet, unpretending man, like the great majority

of my countrymen, thank God."

 

"Then why talk of these sorts of differences in a country in which

the law establishes none?"

 

"For precisely the reason that I talk of the river at the foot of

this street, or because there is a river. A thing may exist without

there being a law for it. There is no law for building this house,

and yet it is built. There is no law for making Dr. Verse a better

preacher than Dr. Prolix, and yet he is a much better preacher;

neither is there any law for making Mr. Effingham a more finished

gentleman than I happen to be, and yet I am not fool enough to deny

the fact. In the way of making out a bill of parcels, I will not turn

my back to him, I can promise you."

 

"All this strikes me as being very spiritless, and as particularly

anti-republican," said Mrs. Jarvis, rising to quit the room; "and if

the Effinghams do not come this evening, I shall not enter their

house this winter. I am sure they have no right to pretend to be our

betters, and I feel no disposition to admit the impudent claim."

 

"Before you go, Jane, let me say a parting word," rejoined the

husband, looking for his hat, "which is just this. If you wish the

world to believe you the equal of any one, no matter whom, do not be

always talking about it, lest they see you distrust the fact

yourself. A positive thing will surely be seen, and they who have the

highest claims are the least disposed to be always pressing them on

the attention of the world. An outrage may certainly be done those

social rights which have been established by common consent, and then

it may be proper to resent it; but beware betraying a consciousness

of your own inferiority, by letting every one see you are jealous of

your station. 'Now, kiss me; here is the money to pay for your finery

this evening, and let me see you as happy to receive Mrs. Jewett from

Albion Place, as you would be to receive Mrs. Hawker herself."

 

"Mrs. Hawker!" cried the wife, with a toss of her head, "I would not

cross the street to invite Mrs. Hawker and all her clan." Which was

very true, as Mrs. Jarvis was thoroughly convinced the trouble would

be unavailing, the lady in question being as near the head of fashion

in New-York, as it was possible to be in a town that, in a moral

sense, resembles an encampment, quite as much as it resembles a

permanent and a long-existing capital.

 

Notwithstanding a great deal of management on the part of Mrs. Jarvis

to get showy personages to attend her entertainment, the simple

elegance of the two carriages that bore the Effingham party, threw

all the other equipages into the shade. The arrival, indeed, was

deemed a matter of so much moment, that intelligence was conveyed to

the lady, who was still at her post in the inner drawing-room, of the

arrival of a party altogether superior to any thing that had yet

appeared in her rooms. It is true, this was not expressed in words,

but it was made sufficiently obvious by the breathless haste and the

air of importance of Mrs. Jarvis' sister, who had received the news

from a servant, and who communicated it _propria persona_ to the

mistress of the house.

 

The simple, useful, graceful, almost indispensable usage of

announcing at the door, indispensable to those who receive much, and

where there is the risk of meeting people known to us by name and not

in person, is but little practised in America. Mrs. Jarvis would have

shrunk from such an innovation, had she known that elsewhere the

custom prevailed, but she was in happy ignorance on this point, as on

many others that were more essential to the much-coveted social

_eclat_ at which she aimed. When Mademoiselle Viefville appeared,

therefore, walking unsupported, as if she were out of leading-

strings, followed by Eve and Grace and the gentlemen of their party,

she at first supposed there was some mistake, and that her visitors

had got into the wrong house; there being an opposition party in the

neighbourhood.

 

"What brazen people!" whispered Mrs. Abijah Gross, who having removed

from an interior New-England village, fully two years previously,

fancied herself _an fait_ of all the niceties of breeding and social

tact. "There are positively two young ladies actually walking about

without gentlemen!"

 

But it was not in the power of Mrs. Abijah Gross, with her audible

whisper and obvious sneer and laugh, to put down two such lovely

creatures as Eve and her cousin. The simple elegance of their attire,

the indescribable air of polish, particularly in the former, and the

surpassing beauty and modesty of mien of both, effectually silenced

criticism, after this solitary outbreaking of vulgarity. Mrs. Jarvis

recognized Eve and John Effingham, and her hurried compliments and

obvious delight proclaimed to all near her, the importance she

attached to their visit. Mademoiselle Viefville she had not

recollected in her present dress, and even she was covered with

expressions of delight and satisfaction.

 

"I wish particularly to present to you a friend that we all prize

exceedingly," said Eve, as soon as there was an opportunity of

speaking. "This is Captain Truck, the gentleman who commands the

Montauk, the ship of which you have heard so much. Ah! Mr. Jarvis,"

offering a hand to him with sincere cordiality, for Eve had known him

from childhood, and always sincerely respected him--"_you_ will

receive my friend with a cordial welcome, I am certain."

 

She then explained to Mr. Jarvis who the honest captain was, when the

former, first paying the proper respect to his other guests, led the

old sailor aside, and began an earnest conversation on the subject of

the recent passage.

 

John Effingham presented the baronet, whom Mrs. Jarvis, out of pure

ignorance of his rank in his own country, received with perfect

propriety and self-respect.

 

"We have very few people of note in town at present, I believe," said

Mrs. Jarvis to John Effingham. "A great traveller, a most interesting

man, is the only person of that sort I could obtain for this evening,

and I shall have great pleasure in introducing you. He is there in

that crowd, for he is in the greatest possible demand; he has seen so

much.--Mrs. Snow, with your permission--really the ladies are

thronging about him as if he were a Pawnee,--have the goodness to

step a little this way, Mr. Effingham--Miss Effingham--Mrs. Snow,

just touch his arm and let him know I wish to introduce a couple of

friends.--Mr. Dodge, Mr. John Effingham, Miss Effingham, Miss Van

Cortlandt. I hope you may succeed in getting him a little to

yourselves, ladies, for he can tell you all about Europe--saw the

king of France riding out to Nully, and has a prodigious knowledge of

things on the other side of the water."

 

It required a good deal of Eve's habitual self-command to prevent a

smile, but she had the tact and discretion to receive Steadfast as an

utter stranger. John Effingham bowed as haughtily as man can bow, and

then it was whispered that he and Mr. Dodge were rival travellers.

The distance of the former, coupled with an expression of countenance

that did not invite familiarity, drove nearly all the company over to

the side of Steadfast, who, it was soon settled, had seen much the

most of the world, understood society the best, and had moreover

travelled as far as Timbuctoo in Africa. The _clientele_ of Mr. Dodge

increased rapidly, as these reports spread in the rooms, and those

who had not read the "delightful letters published in the Active

Inquirer," furiously envied those who had enjoyed that high

advantage.

 

"It is Mr. Dodge, the great traveller," said one young lady, who had

extricated herself from the crowd around the 'lion,' and taken a

station near Eve and Grace, and who, moreover, was a 'blue' in her

own set; "his beautiful and accurate descriptions have attracted

great attention in England, and it is said they have actually been

republished!"

 

"Have you read them, Miss Brackett?"

 

"Not the letters themselves, absolutely; but all the remarks on them

in the last week's Hebdomad. Most delightful letters, judging from

those remarks; full of nature and point, and singularly accurate in

all their facts. In this respect they are invaluable, travellers do

fall into such extraordinary errors!"

 

"I hope, ma'am," said John Effingham, gravely, "that the gentleman

has avoided the capital mistake of commenting on things that actually

exist. Comments on its facts are generally esteemed by the people of

a country, impertinent and unjust; and your true way to succeed, is

to treat as freely as possible its imaginary peculiarities."

 

Miss Brackett had nothing to answer to this observation, the Hebdomad

having, among its other profundities, never seen proper to touch on

the subject. She went on praising