I came forward at this juncture, and, having allowed them to remove

into the small tenement to which, in their reduced condition they

found it prudent to retire, I requested a private interview with

Mrs. Clifford, and readily obtained it.

I was received by the good lady in apparent state. All the little

furniture which she could save from the former, was transferred

very inappropriately to the present dwelling-house. The one was

quite unsuited to the other. The massive damask curtains accorded

badly with the little windows over which they were now suspended,

and the sofa, ten feet in length, occupied an unreasonable share

of an apartment twelve by sixteen. The dais of piled cushions, on

which so many fashionable groups had lounged in better times, now

seemed a mountain, which begot ideas of labor, difficulty, and

up-hill employment, rather than ease, as the eye beheld it cumbering

two thirds of the miserable area into which it was so untastefully

compressed. These, and other articles of splendor and luxury,

if sold, would have yielded her the means to buy furniture more

suitable to her circumstances and situation, and left her with

some additional resources to meet the daily and sometimes pressing

exigencies of life.

The appearance of this parlor argued little in behalf of the salutary

effect which such reverses might be expected to produce in a mind

even tolerably sensible. They argued, I fancied, as unfavorably for

my suit as for the humility of the lady whom I was about to meet.

If the parlor of Mrs. Clifford bore such sufficient tokens of her

weakness of intellect, her own costume betrayed still more. She had

made her person a sort of frame or rack upon which she hung every

particle of that ostentatious drapery which she was in the habit

of wearing at her fashionable evenings. A year's income was paraded

upon her back, and the trumpery jewels of three generations found

a place on every part of her person where it is usual for fashionable

folly to display such gewgaws. She sailed into the room in a style

that brought to my mind instantly the description which Milton gives

of the approach of Delilah to Samson, after the first days of his

blind captivity:-"But who is this, what thing of se or land?--

Female of sex it seems--

That so bedecked, ornate and gay,

Comes this way sailing, like a stately ship

Of Tarsus, bound for the isles

Of Javan or Gadire,

With all her bravery on and tackle trim,

Sails filled, and streamers waving,

Courted by all the winds that hold their play,

An amber scent of odorous perfume

Her harbinger!"

No description could have been more, just and literal in the case

of Mrs. Clifford. I could scarce believe my eyes; and when forced

to do so, I could scarcely suppose that this bravery was intended

for my eyes only. Nor was it;--but let me not anticipate. This

spectacle, I need not say, sobered me entirely, if anything

was necessary to produce this effect, and increased the grave

apprehensions which were already at my heart. The next consequence

was to make the manner of my communication serious even to severity.

A smile, which was of that doubtful sort which is always sinister

and offensive, overspread her lips as she motioned me to resume

the seat from which I had risen at her entrance; while she threw

herself with an air of studied negligence upon one part of the

sofa. I felt the awkwardness of my position duly increased, as

her house, dress, and manner, convinced me that she was not yet

subdued to hers; but a conscious rectitude of intention carried me

forward, and lightened the task to my feelings.




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