of others, yet far too indolent to create. More than all, she lost herself amid the oriental elysiums of Moore, and thence she named her only daughter Hinda. And as the maiden budded and bloomed into womanhood —well, yes, I believe, after all, it was I who softened down her name to India. It has the same derivation, it is the same name, in fact. Oh! and it suits her." "Describe your nonpareil to me." "I cannot. By my soul's idolatry, I cannot. The best of beauty-the charm, the soul, the divine of beauty-can never be described or painted. It is spiritual, and can only be perceived.” "Humph! is she fair?" "No-yet radiant." "Dark?" "No-yet shadowy." แ "Is she tall?" "No." "Short?" "No, no; nonsense!" What, neither tall nor short? Perhaps she is of medium height." "I do not know. I cannot tell, indeed. But oh! she is beautiful-she is glorious! My lady, my queen !" "To come to something tangible, what is the colour of her eyes?" "Oh! what is the colour of love, or joy, or heaven? for as soon could I tell you the colour of these as of her witching eyes. I only know they have light, softly thrilling all the chords of life, like music; and shadows, calming my spirit, like silence." "Well, I admit the hue of beautiful eyes to be a mysterious point; but hair, now, is a little more certain in that respect. Tell me the hue of your lady's tresses." "I cannot. I only know they are rich, warm, and Justrous." "Humph! satisfactory portrait that. Oh! here is Flamingo. Come, Flame, and tell me what is the colour of your young mistress's hair." The latter part of this speech was addressed to Mr. Sutherland's valet, who had just entered. Flamingo was a character in his way; a handsome, bright mulatto, with quite a "wealth" of bushy black silky hair and whiskers. Very mercurial in temperament, and excessively fond of dress, he presented quite as gay and gorgeous an exterior as the famous feathered biped, his namesake. Flamingo stood for a moment in a quandary, at the suddenness and novelty of the question put to him. "Oh, come, now; you are not poetically bewildered. Can't you tell us the colour of the lady's hair?" "De colour o' Miss Inda's hair, sir-a-yes, sirits-its-'bout de colour o' 'lasses taffy, when you're 'bout half done pullin' of it, an' it's shining." "Molasses taffy! Out, you wretch! It is amberhued, Lauderdale-amber-hued, understand; the rich, warm, lustrous hue of amber. Molasses taffy! Oh, villain! To think I could not find a comparison in all nature precious enough for those precious tresses, and he should compare them to molasses taffy! Out of my sight, beast! Molasses taffy! Pah!" exclaimed Sutherland, in disgust, while Lauderdale laughed aloud, and Flamingo vanished into the adjoining chamber, where he turned on the gas, and busied himself in making the apartment comfortable for the night. "Come, let's get out of this mess before the waiters come to clear away the service. Look! This is one of the things that always make me melancholy," said Sutherland, pointing to the disordered table. Both young men were about to retire, when Sutherland again clasped the hand of his friend and said"But you have not yet told me whether you will accompany me home. Come, laying all jesting and raillery aside, you know how happy I should be to have you." "And you know what I have told you before, my dear Sutherland, that I must go to New York for the anniversary week. And by the way, my dear Damon, why cannot you stop a few days before you go South, and attend some of these meetings?" "Me! Heavens! You shock me! You deprive me of words of breath! I a Mississippian! Why, look you; if I were to attend one of those meetings, and if it should be known in my neighborhood, my friends would turn me off, my uncles disinherit me, and my father rise from his grave to reproach me. Sir, my friends and relatives are 'of the most straitest sect of the Pharisees !'" "And do you share their opinions?" "Opinions? Opinions, my dear fellow! I have no opinions. Opinions, it appears to me, are the currency of-of-those who have nothing else to offer in exchange for a living." "Levity! Oh, Mark, how you sin against your own fine mind!" "Oh! come, come, come, no more of that. 'Sir, praise is very flat, except from the fair sex.'" "Ah! I see you are hopelessly flighty to-night. Good night." "Good night. Stay; you will go with me?" "No; unless you first accompany me to New York, and remain through the anniversary week, and attend the meetings." "And hear myself traduced, slandered, abused, cursed! A pleasant invitation-thank you." "And get yourself disabused of many things, you should rather say. See here, Mark, my proposition is perfectly fair and reasonable, and has a meaning in it. Observe: you invite me to the South, and laughingly promise that an actual acquaintance with the patriarchal system shall cool what you call my fever; and that a Southern bride with two hundred negroes, shall completely cure it. Well, I am reasonable. I am open to conviction. I am willing to try it-to examine the 'peculiar institution' with the utmost impartiality. Nor do I fear or doubt the result. But observe further. Both of us, it seems, have heard but one side of this great question. I therefore consent to go with you to the South, and spend some weeks on a cotton plantation, only on condition that you accompany me to New York, and attend the anniversary meetings. In a word, I will see your side of the question, if you will hear ours." "I'll do it, I'll go," exclaimed Sutherland, laughing, and clapping his hand cordially into that of Lauderdale. "I'll go, nor have I any doubt or fear as to the result." CHAPTER II. A SOUTHERN HOME. - A villa beautiful to see; Marble-porched and cedar-chambered, In the forest glades and vistas, Lovely are the light and gloom : And exotics breathe perfume."-Mackay. THE sun shines on no more beautiful and entrancing region than the vale of Pearl river. It is the Elysium of the sunny south, reposing between the rich alluvial lands of the Mississippi, and the fragrant* pine forests of the Pascagoula. The green land of the valley seems to roll in gentle undulations, like the waves of a calm sea. Between the swelling hills, or rather waves of verdure, flow crystal streams towards the bosom of the Pearl. These lovely hills are capped * All who have travelled through or near the pine woods of Mississippi know the effect of the southern sun upon these trees, ripening and rarefying from them a most grateful and salubrious fragrance, called the "terebinthine odour." The effect of the climate is still more obvious upon ornamental trees and flowers. Those that lose much of their luxuriant beauty and fragrance in the North, attain in the South their utmost perfection. |