The hour for the dinner, which was to introduce Glendenning
and his friend, at length arrived, and Mr. and Mrs.
Lennox, Frank, Harry, and Mary, repaired to the drawing-room
to receive the guests.

First came the Eltons, the old gentleman looking rather
grave; Mrs. Elton, her face, as usual, radiant with pleasure,
talking the whole time from the moment she entered; Fanny,
arrayed in all the charm of youthful beauty which exercised
such an influence over the two susceptible young
men, and which was destined unconsciously to mingle such
consequences in the subsequent lives of more than one of
the persons present. Then Mary went down stairs, and
led in, almost by force, little Seth Copeley, in a perfect
flame of blushes, partly called up by the idea of appearing,
for the first time in his life, in society, and partly by the
lively consciousness of having on a very new suit of uncommonly
city-looking clothes.

“Come in, Seth, come in,” said Mary, whose good heart
took a great interest in this friendless boy, and who had
arranged, with somewhat more taste than he had been able

[figure description] Page 110.[end figure description]

to do, various points of his toilet, brushed back his locks
from his forehead, and put a neat brooch, a present from
herself, into the folds of his stock. “What are you afraid
ef? I do believe, if I had not gone down stairs and brought
him up, we should not have had the pleasure of his society
to-day.”

“Walk up here, you young Lothario!” said Mr. Lennox,
“and let us look at you. What are you twisting your
waistcoat button off in that style for? Have you any conscientious
objections to buttons?”

“No, sir,” said Seth, after one of his short laughs.

“Very well, then. Take your hands out of your pantaloons
pockets; throw back your shoulders; lift up your
head; stand strait. Look at me, sir! Can't you stand so,
sir?”

“He is really a very handsome, sweet little fellow,”
whispered Mrs. Elton, loud enough for him and every one
else to hear her, “and such delightful eyes! I'm sure one
of these days those eyes will do their affair, and—”

“How do you expect to become a lawyer and a gentleman,
sir,” continued Mr. Lennox, “if you bury yourself in
an office, and do nothing but read and copy? The law is
the noblest profession in the world. It offers you a brilliant
career, and demands knowledge not only of books, but
of men. That's the reason why I have asked you to dine
with me to-day. You must begin to accustom yourself to
society, to meet men and women without flinching or being
flustered. Stop that blushing, sir! How do you think
you'll ever be able to perform the high functions of President
of the United States—as I presume you will have to
do one of these days—if you can't come into a room without
obviously wishing you could leave your hands and feet
at the bottom of the Red Sea?”

“Come here, Seth,” said Mrs. Lennox; “you'll learn all
these things by-and-by. You shall sit next me, my dear
little boy, and I'll take care of you at dinner.”

The poor fellow went awkwardly where he was bid, glad
to escape the boisterous benevolence of his master. As he
did so, guests were announced in quick succession.

The usual salutations had scarcely passed, when the
conversation, by general consent, appeared to fall on the
two expected English guests. Various opinions were expressed
as to the extraordinary character of Glendenning,

[figure description] Page 111.[end figure description]

who was warmly defended by Mr. Lennox, Frank, and Mrs.
Elton, against the rest of the company. Frank praised him
enthusiastically. His father declared against the principle
of putting a man in coventry because he had exhibited the
follies of youth; and Mrs. Elton was sure he was a noble
fellow from his magnanimous conduct on the field, where he
had risked his own life by wasting his shot, and, at the
same time, saved that of Frank, and where he had made
all the reparation possible. Any one, she said, was liable
to do wrong, but only the good were ashamed of it afterward;
and we ought to recollect that there was more joy in
heaven at the recovery of one lost sinner than for the ninety-nine
who had never gone astray. She was going on to
relate an occurrence which had come under her own observation
only two years previous, when she was interrupted
by the opening of the door, and the servants announcing
Captain White and Captain Glendenning. They were received
by Frank with a countenance expressive of the sincerest
pleasure, and led by him first to his mother, then to
his father, who shook them warmly by the hand. The
kind greeting of Mrs. Lennox was rendered much less difficult
than she had supposed it would be, by the agreeable
surprise she felt at seeing a person so different from what
she had expected. The two strangers were presented to
all the company, including the Eltons and Fanny. At the
sight of the latter the embarrassment and shame of Glendenning
were so obvious as to considerably soften the sentiment
of indignation which had been generally felt at his
entrance. Fanny at first turned pale, but her colour came
presently back deeper than before. There was a moment's
extremely awkward pause, which Glendenning broke, with
equal grace and frankness, by touching boldly and successfully
the dangerous chord vibrating in every breast.

“I should think myself at this moment even more censurable
than I am if I hesitated to express, my dear Mrs.
Lennox, my shame and regret at what has happened; and
my appearance before you would be a new insult if I did
not come most deeply repentant and to seek your pardon!”

“Nonsense, my dear fellow!” said Frank. “Don't give
yourself the trouble.”

“You are the first, sir,” said Mrs. Lennox, “to touch
upon a subject which I should not have alluded to, as it
cannot but awaken in a mother's breast emotions far from

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agreeable. But your frankness merits equal frankness in
return, and I will confess I did not think, ten minutes ago,
that any circumstance could make me forgive you. I hope,
however, I am too much of a Christian to withhold from true
repentance the pardon which we all ourselves require.”

“Bravo! my dear mother!” said Frank, in high glee at
the smooth manner in which affairs were going.

“If Miss Elton, also,” rejoined Glendenning, “knew how
I detest myself for the incident which has distressed her,
she too would forgive me.”

Miss Elton bowed her head without speaking.

“I assure you,” said White, “my friend has changed
more since the little affair with your son than I could have
believed possible; and, upon my soul, I haven't the slightest
doubt that he will get on hereafter famously.”

“Say no more!” said Lennox; “you will find me, boys,
always as ready to grant pardon, when asked, as to—”

“Certainly,” said Mrs. Lennox, who saw that her candid
husband was running upon breakers. “If the affair have
had such a favourable effect upon what, I hope, is but the
thoughtlessness of youth, I shall regret it the less.”

“Since it has made us acquainted with Captain Glendenning
and his friend, I don't think we can regret it at all,”
said Lennox.

“My dear father!” cried Frank.

Dinner was announced, and the company were soon seated.
The manner and appearance of Glendenning, as well
as every word he said, gained him the good opinion of all
present, who, like Mrs. Lennox, had been prepared to meet
a very different sort of person. Instead of a coarse roué, he
was a slender, handsome young man of six-and-twenty, of
manners mild and modest, a prepossessing and even beautiful
countenance, and betraying, in various ways, embarrassment,
ingenuousness, delicacy of feeling, and kindness
of heart. Mrs. Lennox felt singularly interested in him,
and resolved to inquire into his history. As she sat near
White she was enabled to do so, and privately learned from
that gentleman all she desired.

“Glendenning,” said White, “has a constitutional peculiarity.
His temper is as quick and his blood as hot as
his judgment (although good when it makes itself heard)
is slow. With the best heart in the world, and the very
best intentions, he has always been in difficulty. He lost

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his mother, whom he tenderly loved, at the age of thirteen,
and his father immediately married again, by which he
brought an accession of two thousand a year to his fortune,
a woman of a sharp, peculiarly disagreeable temper and
character into his house, and a world of trouble to poor
Charley. The step-mother hated him of course. The
father, also, of course played into the hands of the lady.
Charley inherited from his mother an independence of his
own, which, perhaps, made him less patient than he should
have been. There are half a dozen step-sisters and step-brothers,
who all hate him like the parents, and he hates
them as heartily. His hot temper, perhaps, did carry him
too far in his relations with them. Considering his own
mother's memory wronged by the sudden union, for, in truth,
`the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage
tables,' he found the feeble affection which his father
bore him not enough to protect him from certain annoyances
at home, and he was therefore driven into a course
of dissipation. He then shunned society, and sought only
companions of an improper description, till they bought him
a commission, more to get rid of him than anything else,
and his papa, after recommending me to keep an eye on
him, and see that he did not get himself hanged, or in any
other way disgrace his family (I really don't think the old
gentleman cares one iota about Charley himself), shipped
him off, and I have been his best friend ever since. I assure
you, a more affectionate, generous, warm-hearted, noble
fellow never breathed. Since the little affair with your son
he has apparently devoted some time to sober reflection, and
I have no doubt he will become as fine a fellow as heart
can wish. In short, I think his interval of thoughtless desperation
is over. He has gone through his transition state,
and I should judge him to be a reformed man.”

“You have greatly interested me in him,” said Mrs. Lennox.
“Do you remain long at New-York?”

“Some weeks, I think.”

“If your friend and yourself can be induced to visit us
sometimes, I should like to see more of him.”

“Oh! he will, I doubt not, be happy; and I must assure
you the magnanimity you display in forgiving him will not
fail to make a deep and salutary impression on him.”

“I hope so; he appears to possess a fine mind.”

“And a very grateful and warm heart, I assure you.”

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The hope of being able to exert a beneficial influence on
such a character inspired Mrs. Lennox with the resolution
to make the attempt, and there was something in the face
of her proposed pupil which caused her to think the undertaking
not an extravagant one.

While this conversation was going on, in a low voice, between
Mrs. Lennox and Captain White, Mrs. Elton was
talking so busily to Glendenning as to preclude the possibility
of his attending to anything else, and Mrs. Henderson
was stating the very disagreeable impression both the strangers
made on her to Mr. Brigham, and her astonishment at
finding such improper persons at table with her.

“Mr. Lennox is, I, of all persons, should allow,” said
that lady, carefully lowering her voice, so that Harry, who
sat near, could catch nothing of her communications, “a
most excellent man. To me he has been the most devoted
friend, but it is curious what ideas he has on some subjects,
and how his wife yields to him on all occasions.”

“And should not a wife yield to her husband?” mildly
asked Mr. Brigham.

“Well! I don't know,” said she, fixing her envious black
eyes on the persons of whom she spoke, while a shade of
sharp discontent passed over her forbidding, yellow countenance.
“Mrs. Lennox is an amiable, nice woman, and I
ought to be the last person in the world to say anything
against her, since she is my husband's only sister, and both
I and Mr. Henderson have received nothing but one continued
series of hospitalities from them, and they have, with
their princely fortune, as you know, been the means of putting
my husband into his prosperous business. I am sure
they love us with all their hearts, and never lose an opportunity
of showing it. One can't help using one's eyes and
ears, you know. But I ought to be the last person—”

“Your kind heart,” said Mr. Brigham, with a gentle irony,
“instructs you wisely to be silent respecting the weaknesses
of your friends.”

“Certainly. If there is one thing in this world which I
hate more than another, it is backbiting. I'm like a child
in that respect. My heart always gets the better of my
head. What a lovely girl Fanny has grown?”

“Yes.”

“I think her character has improved as much as her
person.”

[figure description] Page 115.[end figure description]

“I always fancied Miss Elton the gentlest of beings.”

“Yes, she has that look.”

“The whole family are perfect,” said Mrs. Elton to
Glendenning. “There isn't a fault in one of them. Two
such noble young men were never seen. Mary is an angel
out of heaven, and Mr. Lennox the most delightful of men,
while my dear Mrs. Lennox—ah!” and tears actually came
into her eyes, “if you knew her as I do, Captain Glendenning,
you would love her with all the devotion of a son.”

“It is all very well,” said Harry to Elton (who had designedly
led his young friend to the subject of religion
again), “but duelling is, and ought to be sanctioned by public
opinion, and society could not hold together without it.”

“You will allow, I think,” said Elton, “that Christianity
forbids it?”

“Yes.”

“That it regards it as a crime?”

“Yes.”

“Then you cannot fight a duel without violating the spirit
and precept of Christianity?”

“Yes.”

“Then the question narrows itself to a single one: will
you admit the institution of duelling and dismiss Christianity,
or will you embrace Christianity and denounce duelling?”

“It does!”

“And yet you advocate duelling?”

“I do.”

“Then you are willing to see Christianity rejected by
mankind?”

“A grave question,” said Harry, after a pause. “But
no man shall make me a hypocrite. Christianity is a useful
institution. I do not wish to see it destroyed. But it
is not true; it is not divine. Its precepts are beautiful, but
not possible. They cannot be applied to practice, nor am
I singular in thinking so, however I may be in confessing
my thoughts. Other people think the same; but they do
not say so. Only a few enthusiasts, or men not fairly
brought into the currents of active life, pretend to make the
precepts of Christ really the shapers of thought and the rules
of action. I would not express these opinions to the world,
not even to my own friends generally. But to you, who
are not a bigot, I speak freely.”

[figure description] Page 116.[end figure description]

“I honour your frankness,” said Mr. Elton, “as much as I
regret your opinions. Most men, particularly the ardent and
self-confident, if possessed of thinking and cultivated minds,
are liable, not only to doubt, but to disbelieve, at some period of
their lives. If it had been the intention of Providence that
the subject should be placed to the world at large beyond a
doubt, then no one could have doubted. It is the most solemn
one which can engage the attention of a human being,
and, in proportion as life glides away, its solemnity and importance
increase. But it requires, to the generality of
mankind, attention and study like any other of the various
advantages which are placed within the reach of industry.
If it pleased you flippantly to deny the truths of astronomy,
you might do so, and only study could place you in possession
of them. The earth does not seem to us round or in
motion. You are not conscious of being whirled through
space at the rate of so many thousand miles an hour. To
the ignorant you may even successfully deny these facts,
and appeal to reason, sight, and common sense with success;
only study and examination can make you properly
acquainted with the subject, which turns out to be, upon examination,
very different from what it appears to mere human
sight and mere human reason. So with the still more
vast spiritual truths of Christianity. From your love of
right, from the clearness of your understanding and the virtues
of your heart, I hope, when you have tested by trial the
insufficiency of infidelity to bear a human soul even to the
verge of eternity; when you have had time fairly to discover
the empty errors which now wear in your eyes the aspect
of truth, I hope you will reconsider the subject and change
your opinion. My object in eliciting from you the present
distinct avowal of your complete unbelief is to let you yourself
see clearly what your own opinions are. Don't slip
through life without being anything; without either belief
or unbelief. Irrational animals may do this, but a rational
being is formed to acquire opinions by reason, used in study
or reflection. Excuse me for sliding into a sermon at dinner;
this is not the proper place and you are not in the proper
mood. I should be glad to speak with you oftener alone,
coolly and with only truth for our object. Now, however,
all I wish is to establish one point. You are an infidel;
that is, you do not believe the Bible. It is certain, as you
say, that Christendom is full of professing Christians who

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do not believe more than yourself. You are young: life
is before you. You will have time to observe, if God please
to prolong your days. All I ask of you is, do observe.
Don't avoid or forget the subject.”

“I appreciate the interest you show in me,” said Harry.
“But to him who has not yet chosen any religion, it is
necessary, if resolved on adopting one, that he should study
them all. I should spend my days and nights in comparing
Fetichism with Sabeism, the claims of Mohammed,
Brahma, and Confucius. My professional studies must not
be neglected while engaged in these misty researches, and
I fear I should waste my life before I had succeeded in
ascertaining what it is, whence it came, and to what it
tends.”

“You are young and happy,” said Elton, gravely. “You
will not always continue so. There are years when the
mortal stands, or seems to stand, in no need of religion. But
years pass away. If you will allow, we will resume this
subject at some future time.”

“I fear it will be of no avail; but I can never refuse the
advice which comes from a friend.”

This debate was conducted between the two speakers,
and was not, probably, overheard by any one else. Elton
was surprised to find the steady determination with which
his young companion adhered to opinions so dangerous,
while Harry secretly congratulated himself on having always
the best of the argument (although, in truth, Mr. Elton
had not commenced to argue at all), and regarded the latter
as a very worthy, Puritanical gentleman, who believed the
nonsense he had been taught from his cradle, and he envied
him his self-satisfied freedom from doubt.

“What a delightful painting I could make of this circle,”
said Brigham to Harry, “in this light. Upon my soul, I
have a mind to do it, as a sort of continuation to your family
history.”

“You have painted us all so many times before,” said
Harry, alluding to several productions on the wall, “that I
should think you would be nearly tired of us.”

The pieces to which Harry referred were various paintings
and drawings of the children in as many attitudes and
costumes. There was Frank, a two-years' old child, with
his papa's hat and coat on. Harry, a boy of thirteen,

[figure description] Page 118.[end figure description]

looking you directly in the face with an expression of sunshiny,
careless happiness, which formed a striking contrast to his
present countenance. Mary, as a shepherdess of ten, tending
a lamb; and Frank, again, still earlier, with a rattle and
coral.

“I have heard your father speak lately of a tour in Europe,”
said Brigham, “and Frank is going off to Prairie du
Chien; your sister will be getting married next, and what
say you to a small painting, but sufficiently large to preserve
portraits, and to produce all the effect of reality, of
this company just as it now is.”

“If it could be done soon,” said Harry, thinking of his
own plans of travel, “I should like it of all things, and very
seriously I engage you to do it. You can take portraits from
every person. I'll have even little Seth in.”

“I'll do it,” said Brigham. “I'll set about it immediately.
I should scarcely need to alter an attitude. Miss
Elton in the foreground, and those two English officers,
your father and Emmerson, your mother and Frank. We
must talk of this hereafter. Your father especially will
make an admirable head.”

“We'll talk of this more particularly to-morrow,” said
Harry.

“Emmerson's is a singular-looking countenance. He's a
clever man, I believe?” asked Brigham.

“Oh, very; the apple of my father's eye. His history
is interesting.”

“I think I have heard of a service your father rendered
him.”

“Ten years ago,” said Harry, “my father had occasion
to visit, several times, one of the prisoners in the old jail.
While there he observed a man of three or four-and-thirty,
of quiet manners and not unpleasing exterior, shabbily dressed,
pale, thin, and evidently unhappy. He was informed that
the person was an attorney, who was imprisoned for a small
debt, and seemed to suffer in health as well as spirits, particularly
from want of good food and bedclothing. The old
Roman law which gave to creditors the dead body of their
debtor was less barbarous than that of our enlightened land,
which then plunged the living into a cheerless dungeon, deprived
them of the means to exercise their industry, and yet,
while the felon was fed, made no provision to supply them
with the necessaries of life.”

[figure description] Page 119.[end figure description]

“Yes, it is really startling to observe,” said Brigham,
“what abhorrent forms of error sometimes stand in the
midst of us, with the daylight shining full upon them, and
yet exciting no notice because we are used to them.”

“Well,” said Harry, “my father sought the acquaintance
of this person—offered his services—sent him the best of
food from his own table—supplied him with books, newspapers,
etc., till at length, learning his history, and also that
he had been practising law for a year in New-York, or,
rather, endeavouring to practise it, without the least chance
of obtaining any business, requested to pay his debt, which
was only $300, and to take him into his own office as an
attorney, to assist him in business. He found him well-informed,
keen, and intelligent, a perfectly cool and steady
business mind, and a careful, indefatigable student. I believe
he often sits up the whole night to study, and he has
now got to be such an able lawyer that, although he has
not the talent of oratory, he really takes the lead in the
business of the office, and is a most invaluable assistance.
He is a silent man, very quiet, very modest, very amiable.
He never speaks of the circumstances under which he
made our acquaintance, but I presume he feels them not
the less deeply; and he devotes himself to the business of
the office with such indefatigable zeal and fidelity, that we
all see in it the evidence of a mind not the less grateful because
somewhat reserved and silent.”

“You spoke of his history. What is it?”

“He is the son of an honest farmer, who, although himself
poor and uneducated, discovered the intelligence of his
son, and sent him to school and then to college, where his
severe application acquired for him a respectable standing.
He afterward taught Latin and Greek as an usher in a
day school while he was studying law; and when admitted
to the bar and obliged to abandon this means of support,
his cold and silent manners not being of a kind likely to
procure him friends and clients, he languished for some
time in obscurity and indigence, necessarily running in
debt, till at last, although one of the very cleverest men at
the bar, he found himself in jail.”

“Poor fellow!”

“Ah! now the scene is changed. My father loves and
trusts him like a brother. Everything is committed to his
hands. I, so much his junior in age, and so much his

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inferior in instruction and in habits of study, am very glad of
an opportunity to learn under such an able master. We all
love him as a superior being. Everything is Mr. Emmerson
with us. If my father is at a loss for an opinion, he
goes to Mr. Emmerson. If he thinks of purchasing a house
or a horse, he consults Mr. Emmerson. If Frank wants
anything, he applies to Mr. Emmerson. If I am at a loss,
and my father is not at hand, Emmerson is my man. And
I vow, I believe my mother, who esteems him entire perfection,
if she were hesitating whether to have mince-pie
or plum-pudding for desert, would go down and ask the advice
of Mr. Emmerson.”

“Ha, ha, ha! I suppose his fortune is made, then?”

“I believe my father considers it to be, at least, secure.
He received at first a salary, which was subsequently raised.
When I entered the office as a partner, it was agreed
that we should, after the third year, make a new arrangement,
putting him upon an equal footing. My father, you
know, has scarcely need of his professional income, either
for himself or any of his family except me, and is too happy
in being able to bring forward so clever a man as Emmerson;
we are, in fact, going to arrange the matter this
very summer.”

“He must be a great pleasure to you all.”

“He is, as my mother often says, `perfection,' and, at
the same time, in business I never saw a keener, more
watchful, far-seeing eye. In fact, there is something rather
remarkable about him.”

“And the young, country-looking boy, farther down, who
is he?”

“What, Seth? Ah, poor little Seth! ha, ha, ha! Another
of my father's protégés. A little country fellow from
Vermont, well-descended from the Green Mountain Boys,
who resisted every attempt, vi et armis, to make a cobbler
of him, and declared he would be nothing but a scholar and
a great lawyer. He was whipped at the plough, they say,
worse than the oxen which drew it, and sent into the barn
to thresh corn, only to be much more thoroughly threshed
himself, till at last his father kicked him neck and heels
out of doors, and told him to go and be a gentleman and be—
closing with a very naughty word. His mother, however,
sent after him a small, yearly supply of cash, which
he made go a great ways. My father met him by chance

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during an excursion into Vermont, and you know his enthusiasm
for anything striking and out of the common routine.
He ordered the young lad into his room, examined him a
little, found he had picked up a good deal of learning in the
raw material, and offered him a place as clerk in his office
with a pittance sufficient to live on. We've had him now
several years. I like him much; so do the rest of us; but
Emmerson finds him rather intractable. Nevertheless, my
father does his best to bring him out; my father never does
anything by halves, you know. It is his happiness to do
good—to help along young people in the world—to find
merit anywhere—the more unsuspected the place, the better,—
and to call it forth. He fancies he sees in little Seth a
certain excellence of nature, and a certain moral and intellectual
capacity, which circumstances and time are to ripen
into something very remarkable. I don't know how it is.
I like him; but Emmerson, whose opinion has great weight,
says he's a stupid, obstinate little mule, and that nothing
can be made of him worth the trouble we have bestowed
on him. This judgment of Emmerson has put poor Seth
lately rather under a cloud, and nobody but my father, whose
heart shines on all alike, continues to have any high hopes
of him. He invites him to his own table as one of his sons,
as he says, to form his manners and make a gentleman of
him. Poor Seth!”

The eyes of both the gentlemen here turned on Seth,
who, attired in his elegant suit of new clothes, presented
rather a ludicrous figure. He had a long shirt-collar,
which, while it appeared in danger of cutting his ears off,
at the same time interfered with the ingress of food into his
mouth, and the aspiring propensities of which Mary had in
vain endeavoured to bring under. He said nothing, and
when spoken to, only blushed deeply, and stammered an
answer that made him appear all that Emmerson had declared
him. He formed a striking contrast to Emmerson
himself, who, although his manners were peculiarly quiet
and unassuming, was drawn into the general conversation
several times, and discovered an extensive information, displaying
a mind stored with facts, the result of long study;
and the respect with which he was listened to by all the
members of the Lennox family communicated itself imperceptibly
to the rest of the company.

CHAPTER XIX.

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About a week after the foregoing scene, on a morning
which seemed to have assumed its brightest looks for the
occasion, the bell of the steamboat Chancellor Livingston,
advertised to start at eight for Albany, rang the notice to
dilatory passengers that the moment of departure was at
hand. It wanted but two minutes of the appointed time,
the captain had just shouted, “All aboard!” in that vociferous
voice peculiar to persons of his profession, and a couple
of men had stooped to draw in the plank, when two carriages
were seen rapidly approaching, and the already revolving
paddles were checked. The party consisted of
Mr. and Mrs. Lennox, Mrs. Elton and Fanny, with Frank,
Mary, and little Seth, all in high glee, and in a very great
hurry. They were speedily shown on board by the polite
captain, who waited a moment to see that the luggage followed
in safety. Under his superintendence, and to the
silent amusement of the crowd of passengers and of various
miscellaneous groups upon the bales, barrels, and piles of
pine wood on the wharf, three or four stout fellows soon
transferred to the deck the large hair trunk and the little
leathern one, the three portmanteaus and the five bandboxes,
besides an indefinite number of valises, hat-cases, canes,
fowling-pieces, fishing-rods, and umbrellas. This effected,
the captain breathed again. He once more shouted “All
aboard!” and the wheels again commenced their violent
vocation, when another carriage was observed thundering
down Courtlandt-street, with a directness of purpose sufficiently
indicating, on the part of the occupants, a determination
to transfer their persons from it to the boat, if possible.
The several hundred passengers drew to one side of
the decks to watch the denouement of this little drama,
which they appeared unfeelingly to regard as a comic performance;
while the driver of the approaching vehicle, the
horses thereof, the people within, and the desperate and indignant
captain, all seemed affected with emotions more or
less approaching to the tragic. The latter gentleman, in a
tone of voice rather animated than otherwise, ordered the

[figure description] Page 123.[end figure description]

plank to be hauled in, muttering, at the same time, something
which might possibly have resulted from a ruffled
temper, and which appeared to have a reference either to
his own eyes or those of the rapidly-arriving strangers.
Despite these inauspicious circumstances, the said travellers
reached the scene, and, without pausing to reply to
various propositions respecting “very fine, sweet oranges,”
and newspapers containing “the last arrivals from Europe,”
proceeded forthwith to leap on board. Their luggage, happily
light in weight and not numerous in articles, was pitched
after them, in an unceremonious style, by a man, who
first stopped, however, to decipher the inscription, “Captain
Glendenning,” on the plate of a valise. It is generally understood,
by those conversant with the character of the captain
(of the steamboat), that if his glances could have killed
outright, the said man, at that same instant, would have descended
at an uncommonly rapid rate, and probably head
first, into the shades below.

“All aboard!” “Will you haul in that plank?” shouted
the captain, now full three quarters of a minute after his
time. “All aboard!” echoed half a dozen voices. The bell
gave one more deafening toll, which made many ladies
place their hands against their ears and draw up their faces
into the prettiest and drollest expressions imaginable, laughing
all the time, while those with whom the reader is acquainted
were heartily shaking White and Glendenning by
the hand. The plank (at length!) was drawn in with a force
bordering on ferocity, to the imminent danger of the feet
and legs of some forty or fifty individuals. The broad
wheels gave plunge after plunge as the huge engine began
to heave and pant with its great labour, the cables were
cast loose, happily (though miraculously!) without injury to
any one's neck or limbs, the surrounding green water grew
white and distracted with foam, the shore, with its crowded
and admiring audience, receded from the eyes of the throng
of smiling travellers, who began to inhale more freely the
cool air of the open bay instead of the hot dust of the town,
and as the immense boat put fairly off into the river, and
turned her prow up the Hudson, the band stationed beneath
the broad awning on the upper deck began to play such a
soul-stirring air, that everybody looked as bright and happy
as if there had not been such a thing as care in the whole
world.

[figure description] Page 124.[end figure description]

The meeting of the Lennoxes with their two English
friends was altogether unexpected, and so much the more
agreeable on that very account. It was nothing but, “My
dear Captain Glendenning,” and “My dear Mrs. Lennox,”
and “Who expected to see you?” and “Where in the
world did you come from?” “I thought your engagements
prevented your leaving,” and “Now we've got you, we shall
carry you off to Rose Hill!” Glendenning explained to
Mr. Lennox, while White explained the same to Mrs. Lennox,
how they had been unable to resist the pleasure of taking
the trip with them, and how they had successfully
pleaded to be let off from their engagement, and how happy
and delighted they were, etc., etc., etc., while Mrs. Elton
was launching off, to nobody in particular, into a glowing
description of Rose Hill and its resources, in which the
words boating, shooting, fishing, riding, flowers, moonlight,
bread and butter, poetry, and many others, followed each
other with such earnest rapidity that her eyes were half full
of tears, and glittered through her continual smiles like an
April sun-shower. Lennox insisted upon keeping them at
least a month, and, when something was intimated of “leave
of absence” being expired, and a “very severe lieutenantcolonel,”
he said he didn't care a fig for all the lieutenantcolonels
in Christendom, and they might lay all the blame
on his shoulders; and if he could catch the lieutenant-colonel
at Rose Hill, he would serve him the same way, and, if
they chose, they might tell him he said so!

Never was there such a merry party, such superb weather,
such bright things said, and such a wonderful growth of
familiarity and friendship. One of the most spirited things
possible is this way of starting off from New-York up the
Hudson. There was more seen of each other's minds and
hearts in a day than would have been the case in a year
anywhere else. What with the crowd, and the movement,
and the noise, and the voices, and the shaking of hands,
and the hailing of friends to bid good-by from deck to
shore, and the bracing, sweet air, and the beautiful women,
and the jokes and the laughter at everybody and everything,
and the sharp, first-rate appetite occasioned by all this, and
the smell of the very nice breakfast you are going to get
presently, and the flying by of the great, red, smoking,
dusty, magnificent, brawling, bristling, crowded city, with
the black wharves and old meal-stores vanishing in

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double-quick time, and the sloops, and ferryboats, and barges, and
ships, and the green woods, and shores, and rocks, and
sand-beaches, and farm-houses, and villages, and villas, and
leaning hills, and broken, perpendicular precipices, all floating
behind you like a perfect vision of enchantment, all as
fresh and new in the tender morning light as if just finished
on the painter's easel, all steeped in radiant colours, and perfumes,
and grateful silence—in short, to a person, like most
of our present party, healthy and happy, with plenty of
money in his pockets and hope in his bosom, entirely free
from business and care, such a trip, under such circumstances,
is almost enough to make him forget the extremely
bad character human life has received from most who have
favoured us with their opinions on the subject.

The next memorable incident of the day was another
deafening peal from a large hand-bell mercilessly rung by
an honest negro, his face shining with delight at the noise
he made and the important duty he was performing, who announced,
in a magisterial voice, “Them gentleman as hasn't
paid his passages, will please walk to the captain's office
and settle it!”—a piece of rhetoric which brought the gayety
of our little party to its highest possible point, made even
Fanny, who was inclined to be pensive, give one of her old
girlish laughs, and threw Seth into such convulsions of delight
that the merriment of his companions was, if possible,
enhanced thereby.

Then came a black lady, very ingeniously, and, as she
probably thought, tastefully dressed, with a variety of ornaments
and elegances peculiarly patronised by our sable
belles; and after she had quietly and mysteriously selected
the ladies by a freemason sort of nod and gesture, and
thus caused most of them to vanish before the three or four
hundred single gentlemen knew anything of what was going
on, it was announced to the lady-less, male remnant of
the ravenous assemblage, that the hour of breakfast had arrived,
and that, by transferring their persons below, they
might partake of the same. If any of them declined the
invitation, we can only state, the fact has not come to our
knowledge.

There are various sights in this world calculated to awaken
intense emotion, but few more so than that which burst
upon the individuals who brought up the rear of the procession
into the cabin, as they beheld the splendidly furnished

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saloons, and the long, endless tables smoking with every delicacy,
which would provoke the appetite more than it was
already provoked, had such process been desirable, or, indeed,
possible. The Lennox party had been obligingly
placed in possession of one end of the principal table, where,
Lennox at the head and leading the attack, such an onset
was made upon the enemy as never was seen. The effect
of the motion, the excitement, the sharp morning air had
been irresistible. A most extraordinay disappearance of
the various surrounding edibles took place, the four gentlemen,
like gallant knights, hovering around their “ladies fair,”
and anticipating their wants, and thereby drawing closer the
bands of friendship than could have been believed possible.
Mrs. Lennox took good care of Seth, who, when Mr. Lennox
ironically asked him “why he did not eat something,”
at a moment when he was just depositing into his mouth a
prodigious piece of toast and butter, and half a sausage,
came near meeting his death by reason of his sudden laugh
and its abrupt termination, which set everybody else laughing
again, so that, in fact, it was quite a miracle that everybody
got safe through with it all.

Once more on deck, the spirits tranquillized, and the
scenery growing every instant more beautiful, the crowd of
passengers began to yield to those affinities which attract
like to like. A large number were, of course, acquaintances.
Such as were strangers were duly presented, and the enjoyment
of society could scarcely be anywhere greater than
thus, under the broad awning of the upper deck of the immense
steamboat, and floating through scenes which recalled
the valley of Rasselas or the still brighter abodes of the, alas!
once innocent and happy parents of mankind.

In this circle, the presence of the two young duellists occasioned
a considerable sensation. The affair had by this
time become universally known, and the part Frank had
borne in it rendered him an object of universal admiration
and interest. Not only is the unthinking multitude dazzled
by every display of prompt and manly courage, but there is
in it something fascinating, also, to the soberest and wisest.
It seems to redeem even a bad cause, but how much more
brilliant is it when manifested to punish aggression and protect
women? Even they who were opposed to the custom
of duelling, and who would have pronounced it inexcusable
under any circumstances, had life-blood once flowed on their

[figure description] Page 127.[end figure description]

own floors, were silenced by the general approbation bestowed
upon Frank. Had a British officer been permitted
to leave the United States unpunished after such an act—
to have worn, perhaps, on his own bosom the rose thus
snatched from that of an American lady, with an American
officer at her side, what would England, what would the
whole world have said? There was so much force in this
argument that they who had nothing to oppose but the Word
of God were but slightly listened to; so difficult is it for
pure Christian principle to contend successfully against the
passions and illusions of life.

On the present occasion it was soon perceptible that
Frank was the lion of the day. When it was whispered
about who he was, he could not have been insensible to the
eyes which were fastened on him (and some of them, as
Mr. Mantelini says, “demned handsome ones too!”). He
had entitled himself to the applause of his native city. The
newspapers had been full of compliments; judges, lawyers,
statesmen, and public magistrates shook him heartily by the
hand; and among the ladies, a young hero who had just saved
his country in some brilliant battle could scarcely have
been more openly admired. Mary and Lennox enjoyed all
this, and Mrs. Elton, who, from her whole time being occupied
in talking, did not think much one way or the other,
shared in the triumphs of her favourite young friend. But
Mrs. Lennox looked on with regret and apprehension, lest a
serious injury might be thus inflicted on her son's character.

Glendenning, too, against whom, at first, the general indignation
had run high, began to be regarded, not as a libertine
who spent

“His rich opinion
For the name of a night-brawler,”

In the mean while everybody was introduced to everybody,
and everybody talked to everybody about all sorts of
things, and each individual of our party would have thought

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him or her self as happy as possible, if he and she had not
felt they were growing happier every moment.

We wish we could put down the light and continual conversation
which beguiled the swift hours of this delightful
day, and also the thoughts which passed through their various
minds. Mrs. Lennox, as she led on White to new
communications respecting his friend, felt it more than ever
her duty to avail herself of his present visit, which seemed
a providential opportunity, to awaken in his volatile mind
some serious religious impressions. She thought she saw in
him an ingenuousness of character which did not contradict
his engaging manners and prepossessing countenance. The
enterprise of redeeming such a person from infidelity, and
the dangers and misery consequent upon it, appeared one
justly worthy of a Christian. Facility of disposition, which
allowed him to be led away by bad example, and impetuous
impulses and passions which he had never yet learned to
govern, were obviously his principal faults. As for the
scheme of Christianity, its history, and the evidences on
which it stands, he was totally and singularly ignorant of
them, and she promised herself the pious pleasure of lifting
the curtain from those sacred truths, and of displaying to his
candid mind, in all its sublime and unutterable glory, the
ancient and eternal fabric of Christianity.

Glendenning was pleased with the prospect of a week at
Rose Hill, and White was too agreeably impressed with
his new acquaintances to interpose objections. Miss Elton
was glad to have any one to occupy Frank's thoughts and
time. She saw that his duel had given him new hopes,
although the delicacy of his heart caused him to betray
them only in an indirect way. She did, indeed, begin to
regard him as no longer a boy, and the admiration and
friendship which she really felt for him she was too artless
to conceal, and he too inexperienced to understand. He
evidently hoped that time might effect a favourable change
in her sentiments towards him, and trusted everything to
the future, which looked so bright and cloudless.

But of the whole party, perhaps none were so completely
rapt in enchantment (though of a very different kind) as
Mrs. Elton and Seth. The former, who, in the darkest
hour, had around her an atmosphere of sunshine, when that
orb did really pour his splendours on the spot where she
stood, beheld in the earth only a scene of uninterrupted

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bliss. All nature and every individual wore in her happy
eyes a colour of brightness. To her everything was
beautiful, everybody was charming; the ugliest physiognomy
was handsome; a cross temper was honest roughness,
and a pug-nose spirituel. She never saw a fault in
any human being. She gave White and Glendenning such
astounding accounts of the excellence of everything and
everybody, that they began to fancy themselves stumbled
into one of the volumes of the Arabian Nights.

As for little Seth, he was, for the first time in his life,
going up the Hudson, and arrayed in all the splendours of
his new suit. He said nothing except when spoken to, and
then generally answered only with a huge blush and an
abrupt laugh, which opened and closed with an evanescence
quite remarkable even in a world where all is so extremely
transitory. Mr. Lennox, who saw how offensive he had
become to Emmerson, and who could not understand why,
had resolved to take him with the family to spend a month
in the country, as much for the gratification of Emmerson
as of the boy himself. He noticed him a great deal, made
it a point to introduce him to everybody, as if he had been
his own son, never failing, on such occasions, to pronounce,
in a most flourishing manner, his three names, Seth Jacob
Copely, and to add that he possessed talents and attainments
which would inevitably one day place him at the
head of his profession, if not in the presidential chair.
Poor Seth had heard these astounding eulogies so repeatedly
that he began to be used to them—for he felt they
were full of kindness—and to love more and more the person
who showered them on him. All treated him with a
gentleness and consideration which sank into a heart not
without warmth, although rarely displayed, and into a mind,
though slow, both thoughtful and observing. His old, uncomfortable
bashfulness had begun to give place to a feeling
of greater ease and satisfaction. He saw that, where
Mrs. Lennox's mild, sweet face was, he had always a
friend to help him out of the embarrassing dilemmas into
which he was frequently plunged by the thoughtless good-nature
of Mr. Lennox; and as Mary took as much care of
him as if he had been her brother (or her grandson), he got
along tolerably well. Frank quizzed him, and Glendenning
mystified him sometimes, in a mere spirit of fun; but Mary
was an excellent champion, and Frank met in her an

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ancient and formidable foe. In short, Seth, somehow or other,
found himself strangely happy. Of all men on earth, he
most disliked and feared Emmerson; now he had escaped
from the dark face of that gentleman for a time. He saw
his representations had not injured him in the opinion of his
benefactors, and, with the facility of youth, regardless of the
future, he gave himself up to the pleasing impressions of
the moment, watched the easy and elegant manners of the
three gentlemen, and delighted to bestow such attentions as he
knew how upon the ladies, each one of whom he loved with
all the unbounded fervour of boyish gratitude and admiration.
Strange and sweet impressions, too, began to descend upon
his mind, from the varying and resplendent scenes of nature
which were so rapidly flying behind him. He listened, too,
with mute wonder to the conversation of the rest, of other
shores and other rivers, of the scenes of Europe (that
great dim vision of imagination to him), and to the thousand
interesting remarks upon life which he heard now for the
first time. The scenery, which struck every one else, and
brought forth various exclamations of noisy rapture, sank
into his soul silently, but not with a less deep effect, and
this little, stupid country boy, thus introduced, almost by accident,
into a sphere of life so much above his own, began
to feel within him the development of new thoughts and the
stirrings of new emotions. The beautiful countenance of
Mary Lennox (who seemed to consider herself quite a
woman and him only a little boy of no account whatever;
and if she thought so, of course it must be so, for very far
from him was the boldness to have an opinion of his own)
had a sort of unaccountable attraction in his eyes. He
could have sat gazing on it for hours, and so he did quite
uninterrupted, for no one looked at him. If the young girl
herself sometimes caught his eyes with her own in these
encounters, she only smiled so kindly and good-naturedly,
that, as we before observed, somehow or other, this passage
up to Rose Hill was the most enchanting, delicious day he
had ever known.

Fanny Elton, who appeared only recovering from her
late indisposition, required no other explanation for a certain
reserve which seemed lately to have shed itself over
her mind. She presented with Mary the rare spectacle of
a young lady decidedly prettier than her friend, yet without
believing so herself; while Mary, equal in character, if not

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quite so in countenance, knew it well and unfeignedly rejoiced
in it. Far, indeed, were both their pure souls above
the mean passions of vanity and envy.

The bright, breathless noon brought the boat into the
Highlands, whose bold, gigantic forms frowned darkly on
the winding flood, and printed their sharp angles against
the stainless azure sky. This spot, the region of a thousand
romantic as well as historical associations, and invested
by nature with such a startling beauty, and rendered still
more charming by the chaste and tender genius of Irving,
never appeared so bright, so still, so enchanting as on the
present occasion. The sharp beak of the boat went bursting
through the sleeping water, now close upon one shore,
now upon the other. Sloops, their sails fully spread to catch
every breath of air, stole silently along. The sturgeon
leaped and fell heavily back into his watery home, and the
eagle floated low over the rocky heights, balancing himself
in idle enjoyment upon his immense, motionless wings (who
could help wishing he possessed such a glorious power?).
At last the bell, which a few hours ago had pealed through
the hot and dusty streets of the city, now sent its deafening
voice to die away among the echoes of the mountains, and
the passengers to be landed at B— Point, upon whose
beautiful and verdant acclivity Rose Hill stood, were obliged
to get down a very unsafe sort of ladder, into a still more
unsafe-looking small boat, most perilously attached by a
rope to the always rapidly advancing steamer, all of which
looked like a reasonable chance of favouring the merry
party with a ducking. But the descent into their rather
ticklish seats was most boldly and successfully made—
boxes, portmanteaus, umbrellas, valises came tumbling in
one after the other, and sometimes two at once, and off
dashed the boat, in a style which there is not time here to
describe at all, only there were various wavings of white
pocket-handkerchiefs from the steamer to those in the little
boat, and they in the little boat waved back again theirs to
those in the steamer, and Miss Elton sat quietly thoughtful
in the stern, while Frank wished, with all his heart, she
might fall overboard, that he might jump in after her, only
he would not have had her wet the sole of her shoe for
twenty worlds, lest she might take cold, and—but stop:
here we are already ashore. Out go people and portmanteaus
(the captain of the Chancellor Livingston made things

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fly); the little boat was already far off; the steamer began
to puff, and blow, and pant, and thunder at a greater distance;
and the first thing Seth and Glendenning knew, they
found themselves winding up a most sweet and odoriferous
road, shaded with cedar, and oak, and sycamore, and locust,
and wild roses, and all sorts of trees and flowers that make
the air smell delicious; and then they were all standing on
the portico of one of the most perfectly beautiful countryhouses
that (at least so thought Seth) ever was or could
possibly be seen, or even conceived. It was a sweet
place (Rose Hill), but we are not going to describe it.