It was a grand affair, and old Hester, who was at the house, and from the kitchen and side passages saw much that was going on, added to her journal a full account of it, after having described the fire, which she said was “just a judgment from the Lord.” Hester had rather enjoyed the fire, and felt as if justice was being meted out to Mrs. Walter Scott, who cried and wrung her hands, and reproached the people for standing idle and seeing her son’s property burned before their eyes. Hester ached to give her a piece of her mind, but contented herself with saying in her presence, “that folks didn’t seem very anxious. She guessed if it had been Roger’s shop they’d have stepped more lively, and not sat on the fence, a whole batch on ’em, doin’ nothin’.”
“I was a little mad at ’em,” she wrote to Magdalen, “and felt pretty bad when the ruff tumbled in, but I didn’t screech as that woman (meaning Mrs. Walter Scott) did. She nigh about fainted away, and they carried her into Miss Perkins’s house and flung water in her face till them curls of hern were just nothin’ but strings. T’other one, Miss Franklin, wasn’t there, and I heard that she lay abed the whole time and watched it from the winder. That’s a nice wife for you. Oh, I tell you, he’ll get his pay for takin’ the property from Roger, and givin’ such a party as he did, and only invitin’ fust cut in town, and not all of them. There was Miss Jenks, and Miss Smith and Miss Spencer s’posed of course they’d have an invite, and Miss Jenks got her a new gown and had it made in Hartford, and then wan’t bid; and if you’ll believe, that sneakin,’ low-lived, ill-begotten horse-jockey of a Holt was there, and his wife, with a yeller gownd and blue flower stuck in the middle of her forehead. How he came to be bid nobody knows, only they say he and Frank is thick as molasses, and agree on the hoss question. Madam’s sister was there, a pretty enough lookin’ girl with yellow curls and blue eyes, and it’s talked that she’s to live there, and the whole coboodle of ’em. A nice time they’ll have with Mrs. Walter Scott, who holds her head so high that her neck must sometimes ache. You or’to see ’em ride on horseback to Millbank; Miss Franklin in black velvet, her sister in blue, and even old madam has gone at it, and I seen her a canterin’ by on a chestnut mare that cost the dear knows what. Think on’t, a woman of her age, with a round hat and feather, ridin’ a hoss. It’s just ridiculous, I call it. I’m goin’ home to-morrow, for Roger and Aleck is gettin’ kind of uneasy. Roger is a growin’ man. He’s got some agency in the mill to Schodick and the shop, and he’s makin’ lots of money, and folks look up to him and consult him till he’s the fust man in town. I wish you two would come together someday, and I can’t help thinkin’ you will. Nothin’ would suit me better, though I was hard on you once about the will. I was about crazy them days, but that’s all got along with, and so good-by.
“Hester Floyd.”
“There goes the quality from Millbank out to have a picnic, and the young madam is ridin’ with another man. Nice doin’s so soon, though I don’t blame her for bein’ sick of Frank. He’s growing real fat and pussy-like, and twists up them few white hairs about his mouth till they look like a shoemaker’s waxed end.
“Yours again to command,
“H. Floyd.”
CHAPTER XLIX.
HOW THEY LIVED AT MILLBANK.
Mrs. Walter Scott knew nothing of the hundred thousand dollars settled upon Bell, or of the arrangement for the entire family to live henceforth at Millbank. She was well pleased, however, to have Judge Burleigh and Grace and Charlie there for a few days, with other guests from Boston and New York. They were a part of the wedding festivities, and she enjoyed the éclat of having so many young people of style and distinction in the house, and enjoyed showing them off at church and in the street. She enjoyed the grand dinners, too, which occupied three hours and for which the ladies dressed so elaborately, the bride wearing something new each day, and astonishing the servants with the length of her train and the size of her hoops, and she enjoyed for a time the dance and the song, and hilarity in the evening, but she began at last to grow weary of it all, and to sigh for a little quiet; and greatly to Frank’s surprise and Bell’s delight, she gave up the trip to Saratoga, and saw the bridal party depart without her one morning a few days after the party.
The United States was their destination, and the town was soon teeming with gossip of the bride who sported so exquisite jewelry and wore so magnificent dresses and snubbed her husband so mercilessly. Frank’s turn-out, too, was commented on and admired, and he had the satisfaction of knowing that his carriage and his horses were the finest in town; but for any genuine domestic happiness he enjoyed, he might as well have been without a wife as with one.