“You will have more reason for patience. If you get through in a week, you will be lucky.”
“It is a curious case! I find all the local faculty ready to swear through thick and thin against her. My own opinion is fixed—but what is the opinion of one man against those of several in the same profession?”
“We will put that question to Mrs. Horton, who is coming to ask how we have dined—Thank’ee, my good Mrs. Horton, we have done remarkably well, considering all the circumstances.”
The landlady was pleased, and smirked, and expressed her gratification. The sous entendu of Dunscomb was lost upon her; and human vanity is very apt to accept the flattering, and to overlook the disagreeable. She was pleased that the great York lawyer was satisfied.
Mrs. Horton was an American landlady, in the strictest sense of the word. This implies many features distinct from her European counterpart; some of which tell greatly in her favour, and others not so much so. Decency of exterior, and a feminine deportment, are so characteristic of the sex in this country, that they need scarcely be adverted to. There were no sly jokes, no doubles entendres with Mrs. Horton; who maintained too grave a countenance to admit of such liberties. Then, she was entirely free from the little expedients of a desire to gain that are naturally enough adopted in older communities, where the pressure of numbers drives the poor to their wits’-end, in order to live. American abundance had generated American liberality in Mrs. Horton; and if one of her guests asked for bread, she would give him the loaf. She was, moreover, what the country round termed “accommodating;” meaning that she was obliging and good-natured. Her faults were a fierce love of gossip, concealed under a veil of great indifference and modesty, a prying curiosity, and a determination to know everything, touching everybody, who ever came under her roof. This last propensity had got her into difficulties, several injurious reports having been traced to her tongue, which was indebted to her imagination for fully one-half of what she had circulated. It is scarcely necessary to add, that, among the right set, Mrs. Horton was a great talker. As Dunscomb was a favourite, he was not likely to escape on the present occasion; the room being clear of all the guests but those of his own party.
“I am glad to get a little quiet talk with you, ’Squire Dunscomb,” the landlady commenced; “for a body can depend on what is heard from such authority. Do they mean to hang Mary Monson?”
“It is rather premature to ask that question, Mrs. Horton. The jury is empannelled, and there we stand at present.”
“Is it a good jury?—Some of our Duke’s county juries are none too good, they tell me.”
“The whole institution is a miserable contrivance for the administration of justice. Could a higher class of citizens compose the juries, the system might still do, with a few improvements.”
“Why not elect them?” demanded the landlady, who was ex officio, a politician, much as women are usually politicians in this country. In other words, she felt her opinions, without knowing their reasons.