Each prospect wears a brighter hue,
And pleasure seems without alloy.
E. M. B.
“My dear Florence,” said Mr. Cleveland, as he entered the room, some days after the circumstances related in the preceding chapter; “Mr. Preston is in the parlor, and if you and Cousin Clara wish to see him I will take you out.”
“Certainly, Henry,” replied Mrs. Cleveland, “I will go as soon as I can change my dress. Wait for me, dearest Clara, I am always so terribly afraid of Mr. Preston.”
Clara’s heart beat tumultuously at the thought of meeting Mr. Preston, who was an eminent literary character, and nearly related to Edward Seymour, and Clara knew that the latter would not only be pleased to hear from his cousin and early instructor, whom he had not seen for a considerable length of time, but had expressed an anxious wish that she should see and become acquainted with him. Meanwhile Mrs. Cleveland, accompanied by Clara, went to her own room and proceeded to arrange her dress, a task in which she, indeed, seemed desirous to be expeditious, but which she in reality, loitered over for such a length of time, as almost to exhaust our heroine’s patience. At length, when the last ribbon had been fastened, and the last ornament arranged, Mrs. Cleveland said, “Well, Cousin Clara, I am ready; yet, stop one moment, and let me pacify my little Lucy, she is so fretful.” But the one “moment” was extended to several, and as Mrs. Cleveland turned to the door, her husband entered it and informed her that Mr. Preston had just gone, as he was compelled to leave the city that day, and the boat was just starting.
“Really, my dear,” added he, “it is a pity you did not make more haste, I never saw Mr. Preston so agreeable.” Without waiting to hear Mr. Cleveland’s comments, or Mrs. Cleveland’s regrets, poor Clara turned, disappointed, to the window to catch a glimpse of one so nearly connected with her lover.
Thus the winter passed fleetly away, and although Clara certainly spent some portions of her time agreeably, and made some very pleasant acquaintances, yet, on the whole, she was much disappointed with her visit to the city; during which she was not only deprived of many novel and amusing scenes, highly interesting to young persons, by her cousin’s indolence and want of thought, but was, by the same culpable negligence, prevented from seeing many of the curiosities of the place, from a view of which she had promised herself much amusement, as her residence in the country had hitherto precluded her from any thing of the kind; while Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland erroneously imagined that whatever was stale to them must necessarily be so to our heroine. Besides these sources of vexation, Clara had one, which Mrs. Cleveland, habitually careless in money matters, could not sympathize with more than she did with her other annoyances, and this was the state of her purse, as Mrs. Cleveland, with characteristic thoughtlessness insisted upon Clara’s purchasing whatever was handsome or fashionable, without regard to expense.
In accordance with this habit, Mrs. Cleveland one morning addressed Clara in the following manner:
“At last, my dear cousin, we are to have an excellent performance by the Thalian Association; and I have been anxious for you to see one, ever since you have been with us; you know there has been only one this winter, and then I could not go because the children were so cross, but the little rogues shall not prevent our going this time. By the way, my dear Clara, Mrs. Dawson has some elegant head-dresses, and we must go down this evening and get one for you.”