THE BARNABYS IN AMERICA. BY MRS. TROLLOPE. CHAP. XXI. BEFORE twelve o'clock next day, Mrs. Allen Barnaby had received fifteen notes of invitation for herself, her family, and friends. Some of these were for dinner and evening parties at New Orleans, and some for visits of longer duration, which the distinguished travellers were entreated to make at the hospitable dwellings of the writers, during the progress of their proposed tour. To copy all these documents is unnecessary, as the same hospitable and patriotic spirit appeared to pervade them all; but one or two ought to be given, in justice to the eloquence with which these feelings were expressed. The following are selected without the slightest partiality of any kind, except what arises from feeling that they are peculiarly well calculated to serve as specimens of the whole. "Madam, No. I. "Much has been said, a great deal too much, upon the deficiency of mutual good-liking between the great and glorious Union of America and the Islands of Great Britain. You, madam, shall prove in your own person, that as far as the noble-hearted citizens of the United States are concerned, the charge is altogether false and unfounded. Mrs. Major Wigs and myself desire the pleasure and satisfaction-You may observe as a national trait, if you please, madam, that in addressing the natives of Great Britain, the citizens of the United States never talk of "doing honour," and that sort of nonsense, and when you, madam, have seen a little more of them, you will become aware (for your capacity is already proved to be of the best) that they don't stand in a situation for any mortal creature on God's earth to do them an honour.-But to return to business; Major Wigs and his lady hereby request the pleasure of your company, together with your husband, in course, and all your travelling companions inclusive, to a ball and supper at their house and plantation, called the Levée Lodge, just two miles off New Orleans, this day week. "I remain, madam, "With the utmost of respect, 66 For your individual elegance of mind, No. II. "Much esteemed Lady, "After what was read and heard in Mrs. Carmichael's keeping-room last night, I expect it is not very needful for me to say why it is that I and my lady, Mrs. Colonel Staggers, desire your further acquaintance -we being amongst those who, acting in conformity with all reasonable laws, human and divine, do the best that in us lies, as in duty bound, Sept.-VOL. LXVI. NO. CCLXI. C to uphold and support the greatly misunderstood and much wrongly abused institution of slavery. You will understand therefore, madam, without more said, why it comes that we so entirely approbate the superior elegance of the literature which was displayed to us last night. And this brings me to the point and purpose of this present writing, which is to give you an invitation, and your good family all of them with you, to a grand dinner party which it is my intention to give in your favour on the 19th inst., at five o'clock, P.M. "I am, respected Lady, "Your literary admirer, "MICHAEL ANGELO JEFFERSON STAGGERS." No. III. "The Honourable Mrs. Secretary Vondonderhoft presents her gratified compliments to the highly-gifted and superior-minded Mrs. Allen Barnaby, and in conjunction with her husband, the Honourable Mr. Secretary Vondonderhoft, requests the pleasure of Mrs. Allen Barnaby's favouring company, together with that of the party supposed to belong to her, to an evening soirée, when the Honourable Mrs. Secretary Vondonderhoft will have the advantage of presenting Mrs. Allen Barnaby to a great number of her friends of the most first-rate standing and consideration, which she flatters herself may be a gratification, and every way an advantage to Mrs. Allen Barnaby. The evening fixed for the Honourable Mrs. Secretary Vondonderhoft's soirée is next Monday week." "Madam, No. IV. "Your purpose is as noble as are the talents which Heaven appears to have given you for the means of effecting it. I respect you as you deserve, Mrs. Allen Barnaby, and in saying this it seems, madam, to me, that I say every thing. Myself and Mrs. Governor Tapway will consider it as a pleasure to receive you at our plantation mansion, on the banks of Crocodile Creek, for as long a time as you and your friends can make it convenient to bide with us, my wish being to show, for the assistance of your writing, that any unagreeable feeling which may have been seen visible in the United States of North America towards those that come travelling and spying from the old country, have arisen wholly and altogether from the too certain fact of knowing that we were going to be faulted and abused; whereas you, madam, being altogether upon a new lay, in the descriptive line, may look in like manner of novelty altogether for a different style of conduct on our part; and I have no doubt but that you and yours will be satisfied with the same. "I remain, madam, "Your true admirer "And sincere success wisher. "STEPHEN ORLANDO BONES TAPWAY." Besides these, which I have taken the trouble to transcribe on account of their peculiar graces of style, Mrs. Allen Barnaby received no less than eleven other letters in the course of the morning which followed the triumphant exhibition of her powers as an author; all of them bearing the strongest testimonies of admiration and esteem, and all conveying very earnest invitations, of one sort or another, both to herself and the ladies and gentlemen in her train. On receiving the first of these very gratifying testimonials, Mrs. Allen Barnaby, her cheek flushed, and her eyes sparkling with all sorts of gratified feelings, rose hastily from the easy-chair in her own apartment, in which she chanced to be reposing when it arrived, and was just going to look for her daughter and "the Perkinses," in order to share her pleasure and her triumph with them, when a second was delivered to her by the grinning Cleopatra. She returned, of course, to her chair, that she might peruse it undisturbed, and then her purpose changed, and it was to Mrs. Beauchamp that she determined first to display these trophies of success. Again, therefore, she stepped forward, and again her steps were arrested by Cleopatra, who now brought no less than three letters in her hand at once; and so struck was the black messenger herself at this extraordinary influx of despatches, that having laid down the three letters she stood stock still in front of the table, to see how the English lady looked while she was a reading of them. But Mrs. Allen Barnaby was by this time in a frame of mind which rendered such examination extremely annoying to her, and raising her voice and her hand so as to command both respect and obedience, she said, "Leave me, girl! Leave me, I tell you! Leave me instantly!" Poor Cleopatra liked not the voice much, but she liked the hand less still; for not having the slightest doubt but that it was to be employed in the way in which raised hands always are employed towards people of her complexion in Louisiana, she actually quivered from top to toe, for Mrs. Allan Barnaby's hand was not a small one. Uttering therefore only the monosyllable "OH!" in reply, she left the room much more rapidly than she entered it, and the lady was left in her secret bower to enjoy unlooked at, and alone, all the delicious triumph of that happy hour. She read and re-read the five notes, which now lay all opened wide upon the table before her, and then she sat for a few moments in motionless and silent revery. At length, however, her features relaxed into a smile, and she exclaimed aloud, "I wonder what would happen if I were to take into my head to make myself a queen? I wonder whether any body, or any thing, would be found able to stop me? I'll be hanged if I believe there would. However I don't mean to try my hand at it just at present, because I don't believe I could enjoy it more if I was ten times a queen than I do now, seeing all those people who own themselves that they have always hated us English like poison, seeing them all ready to fall down and worship me, just because it came into my head to think that I should find it answer to make myself popular! And answer it does, or the deuce is in it. Why we might one and all of us live at free quarters for a twelvemonth at this rate; and I shall take care to make the Perkinses understand that they are to pay me, if they pay nobody else. That is but fair and honest. And if they don't plague me in any way I will let them have a good bargain. What will the major say to me, I wonder, now?" And here Mrs. Allen Barnaby almost laughed aloud in her exceeding glee. But she was not left long to enjoy in tranquillity this first full evidence of her complete success, for another slave, and not the terrified Cleopatra, soon entered her room, and deposited three more notes before her; and again, after another short interval the same black girl returned, her enormous eyes grown more enormous still by wondering at the business she was about, and laid down four more, and in less than five minutes after she entered with three, thus completing the fifteen, which seemed to terminate the embassies for the time being. To say that Mrs. Allen Barnaby felt and looked delighted as she thus sat surrounded by these white-winged messengers of fame, would be an expression so pitifully and unsatisfactorily weak, that I forbear to use it. But where may I look for words capable of expressing aptly and fully the state of mind into which she was thrown by this enthusiastic outpouring of patriotic gratitude? Look where I will, I shall find none such. It is in fact impossible for any faculty, or faculties, save imagination alone, to do justice to her emotions, and to the imagination of my readers I resign the task, though only too well aware that of these, not above one in five hundred can be expected to possess the faculty in sufficient vigour to do justice to the image I have suggested. Never, in truth, was there a mind more calculated to enjoy such success than that of my heroine. There are many who though they may relish fame with tolerable keenness in general, would feel no great exaltation of spirit at this species of it in particular. But Mrs. Allen Barnaby was not one of these. Neither could she, notwithstanding her well satisfied contemplations on her past life, be classed with those so blazes with distinction and renown as to make the receiving it a matter of indifference. Nor did the shower of happiness which so delightfully bathed her spirit in this hour of joy, bring empty praise alone; on the contrary, a vast deal of very solid-seeming pudding appeared coming with it; and in short, Mrs. Allen Barnaby felt her contentment to be so measureless, and so greatly too big for utterance, that she suddenly determined not to mention what had happened to any one till she had first enjoyed it for a little while in secret, and till she felt capable of conversing upon it with less external emotion than she was at present conscious must betray itself were she to enter upon the subject immediately with any one-unless, indeed, it were her lawful husband and partner of her greatness. "I will lie down!" she murmured to herself, as she passed her pocket-handkerchief across her forehead, "I will darken the room and lie down." She fastened the blinds, and drew the window-curtains accordingly; and then, having laid aside a considerable portion of her apparel, she crept within her musquito-net, and laid her throbbing head upon her pillow. There is something in the climate of New Orleans which tends so strongly to induce sleep, that probably no degree of happiness could enable any person long to resist it if they indulged in the attitude which Mrs. Allen Barnaby had now taken. Certain it is that many minutes had not elapsed after my heroine had disposed of herself in the manner I have described before her eyes closed, and her regular but heavy breathing proclaimed aloud that she slept. But oh! what a sleep was that! and how far unlike the dull oblivion that falls upon ordinary spirits while the "sweet restorer" is doing his work upon them! No "Pray move out of the way, Louisa! Do you not see how all those good people are straining and striving to get a glimpse of me. Matilda ! it is quite ill-natured to keep standing so exactly before me! It is quite contrary to my temper and disposition to torment people so. Oh, yes, certainly," she continued, varying her tone, as if speaking courteously to some stranger, "yes, certainly, my lord. If you will just push that golden inkstand a little nearer to me I will give you an autograph immediately." For a moment or two she was silent, and then turning as it were impatiently on her bed, she resumed in accents less bland, "It is nonsense, Donny, to think of it. written all these books; and if, as you all justly enough say, a title It is not you who have must and will be given, as in the case of Sir Walter and Sir Edward, it cannot be given to you. No, Donny, no. to ME. Yes, yes; hush, hush, hush. It must and will be given perfectly well, Major Allen, without your telling me, that no ladies I know it, I know it. I know ever are made baronets. I know I can't be Sir Martha, foolish man, quite as well as you do, and I know a little better perhaps that you will never be Sir any thing. But if my country wishes to reward me by a title, to which I should have no objection whatever, if such be the will of my sovereign, if that, as you all seem to suppose, should really be the case, I see neither difficulty nor objection in it. Why should I not be called Lady Martha?" and then she murmured on till her voice sank into silence, and herself into sounder sleep, "Lady Martha Allen Barnaby-Lady Martha Allen Barnaby-Lady Martha Allen Bar-” It was clearly evident that my heroine had positively exhausted herself by the vehemence of her emotions, even in sleep, for she now snored heavily for above two hours, without again moving a limb, and on awakening experienced that feeling of puzzle and confusion of intellect which often follows sleep that has been unusually profound. "Where am I?" she exclaimed, starting up, and looking very wildly round her. But most sweet was the return of consciousness which followed. She saw the mass of open notes all lying together upon her table. Is it then possible?" she exclaimed ; "is it indeed true? and not merely the invention of a dream? Am I really at this moment the most distinguished person in New Orleans? And what may I not hope for hereafter? But, mercy on me! I really must keep myself quiet, or I shall certainly go distracted." The resolution was a wise one, and kept to better than might have been expected from the very animated and excitable nature of Mrs. Allen Barnaby. She looked at her watch, and perceived that it was fully time to begin preparing her dress for dinner, and she set about this necessary business with a deliberate steadiness, which showed her |