But to Ramsey,
even without the _Antelope_ or any or all of the sights and facts of
landscape and history, no moment could go stale while the tale of
Phyllis and the _Quakeress_ waited like funds in a bank, and while the
commodore, the captain, and Hugh, the pilots, the mate, the Gilmores,
the judge, general, bishop, squire, senator, Otto Marburg in his green
coat, and dozens and scores of others were all over the boat, each more
and more a story, a study, as hourly she grew older.
On the bench close behind her in the pilot-house a lady with needlework,
a gentleman with _De Bow's Review_ (the squire's sister and
brother-in-law), had begun to talk with the Gilmores and presently
mentioned the twins, speaking in such a tone of doom as to give Ramsey a
sudden panic.
"It's fine!" said the husband, praising Julian's devotion to his
stricken brother. "And they are fine. Their faults--which you've had
occasion to discover, sir--are spots on the sun; the faults, madam, of
all our young Southern gentlemen----"
"Would you say of all?" asked the actor's wife.
"No!" said the other lady, "no, not of all!" and her husband was glad to
stand corrected.
"No," he admitted, "but still of almost all; faults of which we may
almost say, sir, that we may almost be proud!"
"Oh, well," begged his wife, "please almost don't say it! They're the
faults of our 'peculiar institution' and I wish our 'peculiar
institution' were--" She sewed hard.
Pages:
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132