Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/100

Rh which one can breathe at all freely, partly in the open air, partly in the airy galleries within the house, opening into the court.

I am now staying with the F. family in Calle (street) de Obra Pia. Good Mrs. F. has arranged a room for my accommodation, and seems to have my comfort at heart in every possible way. She is one of those beautiful, maternal natures who make life so rich, and all in the house love her. I should love her if it were for no other reason than because she likes the negroes; is a motherly protector of the slaves; and openly takes the part of the negro character on all occasions, and can relate many beautiful traits of their nobility of mind, their faithfulness, and good disposition. She spends one portion of the forenoon quite patriarchally in sitting and sewing among her female slaves, as well as in reading to the younger children in one of the long open galleries, where she also receives visits, and gives orders for the business of the kitchen, or the toilette. In the evening the large family party, and their circle of friends, gather around her in the galleries or the drawing-room. Then come the two young, lovely ladies, her daughters, with their husbands, both Germans, and one of whom is very musical; then come the English consul, Mr. C., with his lovely young wife, a daughter also of Mrs. F., though by a former marriage, and there are the enamoured pair, the eldest son of the house, and his blooming wife; and there are the betrothed couple, Louisa F., still almost a child—and her lover, a young Scotch gentleman, who is desperately in love and very agreeable; there are the younger sons and daughters of the house, the youngest of these my grave little Maestro in the Spanish tongue, the thirteen-year-old Gulio and Emily, as pretty and graceful as one imagines a good fairy; then also come other friends of the family, and there is music, singing, and dancing; but the enamoured bridegrooms, married or betrothed, sit beside their young