If she cannot boast of the bright
carnatic cheek, she can swell the painter's ideal with her fine
features, her classic face, the glow of her impassioned eyes. But
she seldom carries this fresh picture into the ordinary years of
womanhood: the bloom enlivening her face is but transient; she loses
the freshness of girlhood, and in riper years, fades like a
sensitive flower, withering, unhappy with herself, unadmired by
others.
Franconia sat at the table, a pensiveness pervading her countenance
that bespoke melancholy: as she glanced inquiringly round, her eyes
rested upon Lorenzo fixedly, as if she detected something in his
manner at variance with his natural deportment. She addressed him;
but his cold reply only excited her more: she resolved upon knowing
the cause ere they embarked. Breakfast was scarcely over before the
guests of the party from the neighbouring plantations began to
assemble in the veranda, leaving their servants in charge of the
viands grouped together upon the grass, under a clump of oaks a few
rods from the mansion. Soon the merry-makers, about forty in number,
old and young, their servants following, repaired to the landing,
where a long barge, surrounded by brakes and water-lilies, presented
another picture.
"Him all straight, Mas'r-him all straight, jus so!" said Daddy Bob,
as he strode off ahead, singing "Dis is de way to de jim crack
corn."
Servants of all ages and colour, mammies and daddies, young 'uns and
prime fellows,--"wenches" that had just become hand-maids,--brought
up the train, dancing, singing, hopping, laughing, and sporting:
some discuss the looks of their young mistresses, others are
criticising their dress.
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