‘Yes, that noble ancestry I claim, and you shall be my bonny bride, and we will return together to Scotia’s shores, and live near the Highland cot in which you were born and reared.’
‘With a Monteith! with a Monteith, think you?’ and she stared curiously at the youth—‘take off your shoes, sir, did I ever think I should ever set my twa een upon one of that family? Tak off your boot and let us see if ye have not a cloven foot, at least?’
Blodget had sent for wine, which was procured at twenty dollars the bottle—an excellent article, however; and now conversation, raillery, repartee, and compliments flowed freely. The two girls were entirely unlike those whom we find in houses of resort in the Atlantic cities. They had evidently received a good education, more especially the dark-eyed one, and their conversation was conducted in a style more usually heard in a fashionable drawing-room than in an establishment sacred to the Paphian Goddess.
This way the evening was spent, and the hour had become late. Other girls of various degrees of beauty were in the apartment. Music of a high order—added to the charm of the occasion. The men at this house were generally of the higher classes, or those who assumed to be so; and the utmost harmony prevailed. The wines sparkled—wit flew from mouth to mouth—and few things were said or done which might not have passed in the saloons of Mr. Vandewater himself.
Blodget had the air of a blase, and after having talked a little, in a tone of listless indifference, with the Spanish girl, he turned to another. At the close of the evening, Monteagle found himself in conversation with the lively and intelligent Spanish maid, who told him that she came from Santiago, a city of Chile, and where, from some words that accidentally dropped from her, he was made to believe that she had moved in a circle differing, in many respects, from that with which he now found her. He became more and more interested in Maria, as she was called. With all her liveliness there was a certain delicacy about her which enchanted him; and as she moved about to different parts of the room, her rounded form and voluptuous limbs could not escape his watchful regards. His imagination exalted by rich wines and fascinated by the beauty and the manners of Maria, Monteagle was in a condition to overlook the demand of prudence, and the whisperings of conscience. Blodget certainly exhibited no regret at observing this.
The saloon was full of visitors, and young ladies, and some of the latter knew the young clerk well by reputation. They became much interested in the flirtation that was going forward between Maria and Monteagle, and although they were too well bred to betray their interest, they saw and heeded all that passed between them. Some were much surprised, and others thought it very natural, while some few, no doubt, rejoiced in the opportunity for scandal, which would enable them to ‘entertain company,’ by the hour or the subject of youthful proclivities, and the danger of placing too much confidence in these ‘promising young men.’
This was a moment of danger for Monteagle, and yet hundreds of other youths were in the nightly and even daily habit of visiting gambling-houses and places of debauchery, upon whose conduct no remark was made. The reason of this may have occurred to the reader. Monteagle was highly esteemed by his employers, and an opinion had got about that he was something better than common. All men are said to respect virtue, and consequently the aberration of Monteagle was very comforting to such as had previously regarded him with a sentiment approaching to envy. We may as well say, also, in this place, that the love of Julia Vandewater had been won as much by the unusual sobriety and decorum of Monteagle’s conduct as by his personal and intellectual endowments. She regarded him as a very uncommon young man; and it may be perceived by the importance which Blodget attached to his ‘secret,’ that Julia was regarded as a great prize, and one not to be aspired to by every young fellow in San Francisco. Julia Vandewater could have commanded the admiration of any bachelor in California, whatever might have been his talents and acquirements, with the one exception of Lorenzo Monteagle, who, while he regarded her with the affection of a brother, had lived under the same roof with the young lady long enough to know that he could never feel toward her as he ought to feel towards the woman whom he made his partner for life. But this conclusion had not been formed upon any improprieties in the conduct or conversation of the young lady. Had Monteagle a brother who was enamored of Julia, he would have rejoiced to have seen a union take place between them: but there was the important point—it was necessary to be enamored first, for without that he believed that respect and friendship could not insure a happy marriage. On her part Julia loved sincerely, and for nothing more than for the virtuous and circumspect deportment of Monteagle.
I have said that our youth had been fascinated with Maria. He was in high spirits; he was pleased with the idea of having gained so pretty and genteel a mistress, for she had in the tenderest manner, consented to be exclusively his as long as he might feel disposed to keep her. Patting him on his bump of benevolence with her taper finger, she had said, ‘Pretty American lad, I love you much. I love your face. I love your figure, and your voice. I shall be much please with you to-day and to-morrow all the same. Oh, you is one pretty. Come up to my room and you shall see how I love you, mine friend.’
Monteagle obeyed this tender request. From such lips and enforced with a voice ringing like a silver-bell, it was impossible for him to disobey the command. Blodget saw and heard it all; and when the enamored couple shut the door behind them, he placed his jewelled finger on one side of his nose, and winked to the Scottish-girl who appeared to fully understand it.
For the last half hour that Monteagle had remained in the saloon, he had overheard a lively conversation between three pretty French girls, carried on in their vernacular, which had for its object a lady apparently from Lima, as she was dressed in their peculiar attire. Her dress was dark, fitted to the form in a peculiar manner, so as to show the swell of the hips, without being wide and flowing like the dress of our ladies. Her form was entirely hidden, except that a small aperture permitted her to look abroad with one eye. This dress is singular, and yet it is worn by all fashionable ladies in certain parts of South America.