“Snow! how you talk!—it never snows in July.”
“It never snows at all in my country—of course I know little about it; but unless Edmund assures me to the contrary, I shall certainly conclude that these little balls are frozen rain-drops, of the same nature with snow.”
“You are perfectly right, Matilda,” said Edmund, “and you have quizzed your quizzers very completely.”
“Miss Hanson has studied natural philosophy,” said a young lady, sneeringly, being one of those who sought Miss Holdup’s acquaintance. “I always thought that young ladies in the West India islands studied physical subjects more than any other.”
“Physical subjects!” exclaimed several of the party; “how very strange a study! what a very singular thing for girls to think of!”
“I think you are quite mistaken,” said Ellen, with more spirit than was usual to her; for, although she could not conceive that there was any harm in the study, she saw plainly that some spleen was intended against Matilda, and she loved her too dearly, to stand by whilst any wound was inflicted which her interference might avert. Though the most gentle and unoffending in her nature, yet she was capable of warm and active friendship, and, of course, was not a little astounded and hurt when the young lady replied—“Surely, Miss Harewood, you cannot be ignorant that all our great medical practitioners torture and kill animals, for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of diseases, and, in many cases, undoubtedly for the purpose of learning how much suffering bodies of a certain size and texture are capable of enduring? Now I don’t doubt, Miss Hanson, being so wise in other matters, can tell you exactly how much pain is necessary to kill a slave, how many stripes a child can endure, and how long hunger, beating, and torturing, may be applied without producing death; and prove that in case they do destroy a few blackies, that don’t signify, if they can afford to buy more.”
“Well, and suppose Miss Hanson did kill some of those creatures,” cried Miss Holdup, “she can afford to buy more; at least, her mamma can, which is much the same; though to be sure, ’tis a fine thing to be independent. For my part, I think there is ten times more said about those filthy negroes than signifies: dear me! they are not to compare to my Frisky; ’tis the most angelic creature of a dog! worth fifty blacks any day, unless, to be sure, they were in handsome liveries.”
Matilda had suffered in every nerve while the first lady spoke, but the defence of the second hurt her ten times more, as it appeared to indicate a hardness of heart, a daring to make light of a most solemn subject, and one to which she had given much serious thought, and she hastily plucked away the arm Miss Holdup had taken, and would have retired, but she was hemmed in by a circle, and could not escape. The young lady replied to her advocate, in a fawning voice—“Ah, dear Miss Holdup! you are fond of defending any body you take a fancy for; but I am certain, if you were really on the spot, you could not bear to see those things your new friend has been in the habit of doing. I am told, mere children amuse themselves in Barbadoes with sticking pins into the legs of little children, dropping scalding sealing-wax upon their arms, and cutting lines and stars in their necks with knives and scissors.”
“Yes,” added one of the Eustons, “and the most delicate ladies are waited upon by naked slaves, whose bare backs are probably bleeding from the recent effects of a sound whipping, inflicted, probably, because Missy’s dolly had fallen, and broken her nose, out of Missy’s own hands.”
“Shocking creatures!”—“Dreadful wretches!”—“Wicked creatures!”—“How terrible!”—“How abominable!” were exclamations naturally uttered on every side, and those who, on Matilda’s innocent triumph, had in the first instance pressed around her, now withdrew from her side, shrinking as from something monstrous and loathsome in nature; and such was the bustle and confusion between those who were eager to inquire, and those who were more eager to inform, that the few who endeavoured to divert attention from the subject, or insist upon the pictures presented being overcharged, could not be heard.