means, and tell me by what financial legerdemain 1
can get affixed to these scrawls that happiest com
bination of words in the English language that
honeyed phrase, c received payment in full 9 oh,
gentle shepherd, tell me where T "
"Where deficits should always find supplies,
Meredith, in a friend s purse. I have just settled
the account of my pedagogue labours for the last
term, and as I have no extra bills to pay, I have
extra means quite at your service."
Meredith protested, and with truth, that nothing
was farther from his intentions than drawing on his
friend ; and when Eliot persisted and counted out
the amount which Meredith said would relieve
his little embarrassments, he felt, and magnan
imously expressed his admiration of those work
ing-day world virtues (so he called them), industry
and frugality, which secured to Eliot the tranquillity
48 THE LINWOODS.
of independence, and the power of liberality. It
ie> possible that, at another time, and in another
humour, he might have led the laugh against the
sort of barter trade the selling one kind or degree
of knowledge to procure another, by which a
Yankee youth, who is willing to live like an anchor
ite or a philosopher in the midst of untasted pleas
ures, works his passage through college.
Subsequent instances occurred of similar but
temporary obligations on the part of Meredith.
Temporary of course, for Meredith was too thor
oughly imbued with the sentiments of a gentleman
to extend a pecuniary obligation beyond the term
of his necessity.
THE LIN WOODS. 49
CHAPTER III.
" Hear me profess sincerely had I a dozen sons, each in my
love alike, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country
than one voluptuously surfeit out of action." SHAKSPEARE.
THE following extracts are from a letter from
Bessie Lee to her friend Isabella Linwood.
" DEAREST ISABELLA,
" You must love me, or you could not endure my
stupid letters you that can write so delightfully
about nothing, and have so much to write about,
while I can tell nothing but what I see, and I see
so little ! The outward world does not much in
terest me. It is what I feel that I think of and
ponder over; but I know how you detest what you
call sentimental letters, so I try to avoid all such
subjects. Compared with you I am a child two
years at our age makes a great difference I am
really very childish for a girl almost fourteen, and
yet, and yet, Isabella, I sometimes seem to myself
to have gone so far beyond childhood, that I have
almost forgotten that careless, light-hearted feeling
I used to have. I do not think I ever was so light-
hearted as some children, and yet I was not
serious at least, not in the right way. Many a
VOT . i. c 5
50 THE LINWOOB
time, before I was ten years old, I have sat up in
my own little room till twelve o clock Saturday
night, reading, and then slept for an hour and a
half through the whole sermon the next morning.
I do believe it is the natural depravity of my
heart. I never read over twice a piece of heathen
poetry that moves me but I can repeat it and
yet, I never could get past what is effectual cal
ling ? in the Westminster Catechism ; and I always
was in disgrace on Saturday, when parson Wilson
came to the school to hear us recite it : oh dear,
the sight of his wig and three-cornered hat pet
rified me !" \
v C M :^ }
" Jasper Meredith is here, passing the vacation
with Eliot. I was frightened to death when Eliot
wrote us he was coming we live in such a
homely way only one servant, and I remember
well how he used to laugh at every thing he called
a la bourgeoise. I felt this to be a foolish, vulgar
pride, and did my best to suppress it ; anc 1 ^ince I
have found there was no occasion for it, foi J per
seemed (I do not mean seemed, I think he L much
moi e sincere than he used to be) to miss nothing,
and to be delighted with being here. I do not
think he realizes that I am now three years older
than I was in New-York, for he treats me with
that sort of partiality devotion you might almost
call it that he used to there, especially when you
THE LINWOODS. 51
and he had had a falling out. He has been giving
me some lessons in Italian. He says I have a
wonderful talent for learning languages, but it is
not so : you know what hobbling work I made
with the French when you and I went to poor old
Mademoiselle Amand Jasper is quite a different
teacher, and I never fancied French. He has been
teaching me to ride, too we have a nice little
pony, and he has a beautiful horse so that we
have the most delightful gallops over the country
every day. It is very odd, though I am such a
desperate coward, I never feel the least timid when
I am riding with Jasper indeed, I do not think of
it. Eliot rarely finds time to go with us when
he is at home from college he has so much to do
for mother dear Eliot, he is husband, father,
brother, every thing to us."
" I had not time, while Jasper and Eliot stayed,
to finish my letter, and since they went away I
have been so dull ! The house seems like a tomb.
I go from room to room, but the spirit is not here.
Master Hale, the schoolmaster, boards with us,
and gives me lessons in some branches that Eliot
thinks me deficient in ; but ah me ! where are the
talents for acquisition that Jasper commended?
Did you ever know, dear Isabella, what it was to
have every thing affected by the departure of
friends, as nature is by the absence of light all
c 2
52 THE LINWOODS.
fade into one dull uniform hue. When Eliot and
Jasper were here, all was bright and interesting
from the rising of the sun to the going down there
of now ! ah me !
" I am shocked to find how much I have written
about myself. My best respects to your father
and mother, and love to Herbert. Burn this worth
less scrawl without fail, dear Isabella, and believe
me ever most affectionately
" Yours,
"BESSIE LEE."
Jasper Meredith to Herbert Linwood.
" DEAR LINWOOD,
u I have been enjoying a very pretty little epi
sode in my college life, passing the vacation at
Westbrook, with your old friends the Lees. A
month in a dull little country town would once
have seemed to me penance enough for my worst
sin, but now it is heaven to get anywhere beyond
the sound of college bells beyond the reach of
automaton tutors periodical recitations chapel
prayers, and college rules.
" I went to the Lees with the pious intention of
quizzing your rustics to the top o my bent ; but
Herbert, my dear fellow, I ll tell you a secret ; when
people respect themselves, and value things accord
ing to their real intrinsic worth, it gives a shock to
our artificial and worldly estimates, and makes us
feel as if we stood upon a wonderful uncertain
THE LINWOODS. 53
foundation. These Lees are so strong in their sim
plicity they would so disdain aping and imitating
those that we (not they, be sure !) think above them
they are so sincere in all their ways no awk
ward consciousness no shame-facedness what
ever about the homely details of their family
affairs. By heavens, Herbert, I could not find a
folly a meanness or even a ludicrous rusticity
at which to aim my ridicule.
" I begin to think no, no, no, I do not but, if
there were many such families as these Lees in
the world, an equality, independent of all extrane
ous circumstances (such as the politicians of this
country are now ranting about), might subsist on
the foundation of intellect and virtue.
" After all, I see it is a mere illusion. Mrs. Lee s
rank, though in Westbrook she appears equal to
any Roman matron, is purely local. Hallowed as
she is in your boyish memory, Herbert, you must
confess she would cut a sorry figure in a New-
York drawing-room.
" Eliot might pass current anywhere ; but then
he has had the advantage of Boston society, and
an intimacy with pardon my coxcombry your
humble servant. Bessie sweet Bessie Lee, is a
gem fit to be set in a coronet. Don t be alarmed,
Herbert, you are welcome to have the setting of
her. There is metal, as you know, more attractive
to me. Bessie is not much grown since she was
in New- York she is still low in stature, and so
5*
54 THE LINWOODS.
childish in her person, that I was sometimes in
danger of treating her like a child of forgetting
that she had come within the charmed circle of
proprieties. But, if she has still the freshness and
immaturity of the unfolding rose-bud the mysti
cal charm of woman the dhdnjty^ stirring within
her beams through her exquisite features. Such
features ! Phidias would have copied them in his
immortal marble. How in the world should such
a creature, all sentiment, refinement, imagination,
spring up in practical, prosaic New-England !
She is a wanderer from some other star. I am
writing like a lover, and not as I should to a lover.
But, on my honour, Herbert, I am no lover of
little Bessie I mean. I should as soon think of be
ing enamoured of a rose, a lily, or a violet, an ex
quisite sonnet, or an abstraction.
" It is an eternity since Isabella has written me
a postscript why is this ? Farewell, Linwood.
" Yours, &c.
" P. S. One word on politics a subject I de
test, and meddle with as little as possible. There
must be an outbreak there is no avoiding it. But
there can be no doubt which party will finally pre
vail. The mother country has soldiers, money,
every thing ; tis odds beyond arithmetic. As one
of my friends said at a dinner in Boston the other
day, the growling curs may bark for a while, but
they will be whipped into submission, and wear
their collars patiently for ever after. I trust, Her
THE LINWOODS. 55
bert, you are already cured of what my uncle used
to call the boy-fever but if not, take my ad
vice be quiet, prudent, neutral. As long as we
are called boys, we are not expected to be patriots,
apostles, or martyrs. At this crisis your filial and
fraternal duties require that you should suppress, if
not renounce, the opinions you used to be so fond
of blurting out on all occasions. I am no preacher
I have done a word to the wise.
" M ."
*
We resume the extracts from Bessie s letters.
" DEAR ISABELLA, Never say another word to
me of what you hinted in your last letter : indeed,
I am too young ; and besides, I never should feel
easy or happy again with Jasper, if I admitted
such a thought. I have had but one opinion since
our visit to Effie ; not that I believed in her at
least, not much ; but I have always known who
was first in his thoughts heart opinion ; and be
sides, it would be folly in me, knowing his opinions
abo.it rank, &c. Mother thinks him very proud,
and somewhat vain ; and she begins not to be
pleased with his frequent visits to Westbrook. She
thinks no, fears, or rather she imagines, that Jas
per and I no, that Jasper or I no. that I
it is quite too foolish to write, Isabella mother
does not realize what a wide world there is between
us. I might possibly, sometimes, think he loved
56 THE LIN WOODS.
(this last word was carefully effaced, and cared
substituted) cared for me, if he did not know you.
" How could Jasper tell you of Eliot s preju
dice against you ? Jasper himself infused it, un
wittingly, I am sure, by telling him that when
with you, I lived but to do * your best pleasure,
were it to fly, to swim, or dive into the fire.
Eliot fancies that you are proud and overbearing
I insist, dear Isabella, that such as you are born
to rule such weak spirits as mine ; but Eliot says
he does not like absolutism in any form, and es
pecially in woman s. Ah, how differently he would
feel if he were to see you I am sure you would
like him I am not sure, even, that you would not
have preferred him to Jasper, had he been born
and bred in Jasper s circumstances. He has more
of some qualities that you particularly like, frank
ness and independence and mother says (but
then mother is not at all partial to Jasper) he has
a thousand times more real sensibility he does,
perhaps, feel more for others. I should like to
know which you would think the handsomest.
Eliot is at least three inches the tallest ; and, as
Jasper once said, cast in the heroic mould, with
just enough, and not an ounce too much of mor
tality but then Jasper has such grace and sym
metry just what I fancy to be the beau-ideal of
the arts. Jasper s eyes are almost too black too
piercing ; and yet they are softened by his long
lashes, and his olive complexion, so expressive
THE LINWOODS. 57
like that fine old portrait in your drawing-room.
His mouth, too, is beautiful it has such a defined^
chiselled look but then do you not think that his
teeth being so delicately formed, and so very, very
white, is rather a defect ? I don t know how to de
scribe it, but there is rather an uncertain exprejsion
about his mouth. Eliot s, particularly when he
smiles, is truth and kindness itself and his deep,
deep blue eye, expresses every thing by turns I
mean every thing that should come from a pure and
lofty spirit now tender and pitiful enough for me,
and now superb and fiery enough for you but what
a silly, girlish letter I am writing Out of the
abundance of the heart, you know ! I see nobody
but Jasper and Eliot, and I think only of them."
We continue the extracts from Bessie s letters
They were strictly feminine, even to their being
dateless we cannot, therefore, ascertain the precise
period at which they were written, except by theii
occasional allusions to contemporaneous events.
" Thanks, dear Isabella, for your delightful letter
by Jasper no longer Jasper, I assure you to his
face, but Mr. Meredith oh, I often wish the time
back when I was a child, and might call him Jas
per, and feel the freedom of a child. I wonder if
I should dare to call you Belle now, or even Isa
bella ? Jasper, since his last visit at home, tells me
so much of your being the mirror of fashion
the observed of all observers Cthese are his own
c 3
58 THE LINWOODS.
words drawing-room terms that were never heard
in Westbrook but from his lips), that I feel a sort of
fearful shrinking. It is not envy I am too happy
now to envy anybody in the wide world. Eliot is
at home, and Jasper is passing a week here. Is it
not strange they should be so intimate, when they
differ so widely on political topics ? I suppose it
is because Jasper does not care much about the
matter ; but this indifference sometimes provokes
Eliot. Jasper is very intimate with Pitcairn and
Lord Percy ; and Eliot thinks they have more in
fluence with him than the honour and interest of
his country. Oh, they talk it over for hours and
hours, and end, as men always do with their argu
ments, just where they began. Jasper insists that
as long as the quarrel can be made up it is much
wisest to stand aloof, and not, like mad boys, to
rush foremost into the first fray ; besides, he says
he is tied by a promise to his uncle that he will
have nothing to do with these agitating disputes
till his education is finished. Mother says (she
does not always judge Jasper kindly) that it is very
easy and prudent to bind your hands with a promise
when you do not choose to lift them.
" Ah, there is a terrible storm gathering ! Those
who have grown up together, lovingly interlacing
their tender branches, must be torn asunder some
swept away by the current, others dispersed by the
winds."
THE LINWOODS. 59
" DEAR ISABELLA, The world seems turned
upside down since I began this letter war (ivar,
what an appalling sound) has begun blood has
been spilt, and our dear, dear Eliot but I must
tell you first how it all was. Eliot and Jasper were
out shooting some miles from Cambridge, when, on
coming to the road, they perceived an unusual com
motion old men and young, and even boys, all
armed, in wagons, on horseback, and on foot, were
coming from all points, and all hurrying onward in
one direction. On inquiring into the hurly-burly,
they were told that Colonel Smith had marched to
Concord to destroy the military stores there ; and
that our people were gathering from all quarters to
oppose his return. Eliot immediately joined them,
Jasper did not ; but, dear Isabella, I that know
you so well, know, whatever others may think, that
tories may be true and noble. There was a fight
at Lexington. Our brave men had the best of it.
Eliot was the first to bring us the news. With
a severe wound in his arm, he came ten miles that
we need not be alarmed by any reports, knowing,
as he told mother, that she was no Spartan mother,
to be indifferent whether her son came home with
his shield or on his shield.
" Jasper has not been to Westbrook since the
battle. My mind has been in such a state of alarm
since, I cannot return to my ordinary pursuits. J
was reading history with the children, and the Eng
lish poets with mother, but I am quite broken up.
60 THE LINWOODS.
" I do not think this horrid war should separ
ate those who have been friends ; thank God, my
dear Isabella, we of womankind are exempts not
called upon to take sides our mission is to heal
wounds, not to make them ; to keep alive and tend
with vestal fidelity the fires of charity and love.
My kindest remembrance to Herbert. I hope he
has renounced his whiggism ; for if it mast come
to that, he had better fight on the wrong side (ig-
norantly) than break the third commandment.
Write soon, dear Isabella, and let me know if this
hurly-burly extends to New- York dear, quiet
New-York ! In war and in peace, in all the
chances and changes of this mortal life, your own
BESSIE LEE."
Miss Linwood to Bessie Lee.
" Exempts ! my little spirit of peace your vo
cation it may be, my pretty dove, to sit on your
perch with an olive-branch in your bill, but not
mine. Oh for the glorious days of the Clorindas,
when a woman might put down her womanish
thoughts, and with helmet and lance in rest do
battle with the bravest ! Why was the loyal spirit
of my race my exclusive patrimony ? Can his
blood, who at his own cost raised a troop of horse
for our martyr king, flow in Herbert s veins ? or
his who followed the fortunes of the unhappy
James ? Is rny father s son a renegado a rebel *
Yes, Bessie my blood burns in my cheeks wLl#
THE LINWOODS. 61
I write it. Herbert, the only male scion of the
Linwoods my brother our pride our hope has
declared himself of the rebel party * Ichabod,
Ichabod, the glory is departed, is written on our
door-posts.
" But to come down from my heroics ; we are
in a desperate condition such a scene as I have
just passed through ! Judge Ellis was dining with
us, Jasper Meredith was spoken of. In the
name of Heaven, Ellis, said my father, why do
you suffer your nephew to remain among the rebel
crew in that infected region ?
" I do not find, replied the judge, glancing at
Herbert, that any region is free from infection.
" True, true, said my father ; but the air of
the Yankee states is saturated with it. I would
not let an infant breathe it, lest rebellion should
break out when he came to man s estate. I am
sorry to say it, dear Bessie; but my father traces
Herbert s delinquency to his sojourn at Westbrook.
I saw a tempest was brewing, and thinking to make
for a quiet harbour, I put in my oar, and repeated
the story you told me in your last letter of our non-
combatant, Mr. Jasper. The judge was charmed.
* Ah, he s a prudent fellow ! he said ; he ll not
commit himself !
" Not commit himself ! exclaimed my father ;
* by Jupiter, if he belonged to me, he should com
mit himself. I would rather he should jump the
wrong way than sit squat like a toad under a hedge,
62 THE LINWOODS.
till he was sure which side it was most prudent to
jump. You see, Bessie, my father s words im
plied something like a commendation of Herbert.
I ventured to look up their eyes met I saw
a beam of pleasure flashing from them, and passing
like an electric spark from one heart to another.
Oh, why should this unholy quarrel tear asunder
such true hearts !
" The judge s pride was touched he is a mean
wretch. Ah, my dear sir, he said, it is very
well for you, who can do it with impunity, to disre
gard prudential considerations ; for instance, you
remain true to the king, the royal power is main
tained, and your property is protected. Your son
I suppose a case your son joins the rebels,
the country is revolutionized, and your property is
secured as the reward of Mr. Herbert s patriotism.
" My father hardly heard him out. Now, by
the Lord that made me ! he exclaimed, setting
down the decanter with a force that broke it in a
thousand pieces, * I would die of starvation before
I would taste a crumb of bread that was the reward
of rebellion.
" It was a frightful moment ; but my father s
passion, you know, is like a whirlwind ; one gust,
and it is over ; and mamma is like those short-stem
med flowers that lie on the earth ; no wind moves
her. So, though the judge was almost as much
disconcerted as the decanter, it seemed all to have
blown over, while mamma, as in case of any ordi
THE LINWOODS. 63
nary accident, was directing Jupe to remove the
fragments, change the cloth, etc. But alas ! the
evil genius of our house triumphed ; for even a
bottle of our oldest Madeira, which is usually to
my father like oil to the waves, failed to preserve
tranquillity. The glasses werQ filled, and my
father, according to his usual custom, gave the
king God bless him.
" Now you must know, though he would not
confess he made any sacrifice to prudence, he has
for some weeks omitted to drink wine at all,
on some pretext or other, such as he had a head
ache, or he had dined out the day before, or ex
pected to the day after ; and thus Herbert has
escaped the test. But now the toast was given,
and Herbert s glass remained untouched, while
he sat, not biting, but literally devouring his
nails. I saw the judge cast a sinister look at him,
and then a glance at my father. The storm was
gathering on my father s brow. Herbert, Dry
son, said mamma, you will be too late for youi
appointment. Herbert moved his chair to rise,
when my father called out, Stop, sir no slink
ing away under your mother s shield hear me
no man who refuses to drink that toast at my table
shall eat of my bread or drink of my wine.
" Then God forgive me for I never will drink
it so help me Heaven !
" Herbert left the room by one door my father
b v another mamma stayed calmly talking to
64 THE LINWOODS.
that fixture of a judge, and I ran to my room, where,
as soon as I had got through with a comfortable fit
of crying, I sat down to write you (who are on the
enemy s side) an account of the matter. What
will come of it, Heaven only knows !
" But, my dear little gentle Bessie, I never think of
you as having any thing to do with these turbulent
matters ; you are in the midst of fiery rebel spirits,
but you are too pure, too good to enter into their
counsels, and far too just for any self-originating
prejudices, such as this horrible one that pervades
the country, and fires New-England against the
legitimate rights of the mother country over her
wayward, ungrateful child. Don t trouble your
head about these squabbles, but cling to Master
Hale, your poetry, and history: by-the-way, I
laughed heartily that you, who have done duty
reading so virtuously all your life, should now
come to the conclusion * that history is dry. I
met with a note in Herodotus, the most picturesque
of historians, the other day that charmed me. The
writer of the note says there is no mention what
ever of Cyrus in the Persian history. If history
then is mere fiction, why may we not read romances
of our own choosing ? My instincts have not mis
guided me, after all.
" So, Miss Bessie, Jasper Meredith is in high
favour with you, and the friend of your nonpareil
brother. Jasper could always be irresistible when
he chose, and he seems to have been i the vein
THE LINWOODS. 65
at Westbrook. With all our impressions (are they
prejudices, Bessie ?) against your Yankee land, we
thought him excessively improved by his residence
among you. Indeed, I think if he were never to
get another letter from his worldly icicle mother,
to live away from his time-serving uncle, and never
receive another importation of London coxcomb
ries, he would be what nature intended him a
paragon.
" I love your sisterly enthusiasm. As to my
estimation of your brother being affected by the
accidents of birth and fortune, indeed, you were
not true to your friend when you intimated that.
Certainly, the views you tell me he takes of my
character are not particularly flattering, or even
conciliating. However, I have my revenge you