Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/32

Rh Mexican Gulf, and upon the flat shores of which the planters of Louisiana have their beautiful, luxurious villas and gardens. The steam-boat, “Florida,” which conveyed us across the quiet, clear lake, was a flower among steam-boats, so ornamental and so pretty, and as yet in all its first freshness. Mr. G., one of the proprietors of the vessel, would not allow me to pay my passage. We inhaled the pleasant air, contemplated the magnificent evening sky, ate, drank, and slept well, and saw, the next morning, the sun rise bright above Mobile.

Mrs. Le V. came to meet me with her carriage. I found her a short, handsome lady, remarkably like Mrs. L. in appearance, bearing, and manner of speaking, but without her coldness of temperament. I had heard so much of Mrs. Le V.'s vivacity and grace that I was surprised to find evident traces of deep sorrow in her countenance. She had suffered two years ago, blow after blow in the death of her brother and two of her children, since which she has altogether withdrawn herself from society, the ornament of which she had hitherto been. She shut herself within her own room for several months, which were spent in incessant weeping. The visit of Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley to Mobile, her intellectual society, and warm, womanly sympathy, drew the mourner somewhat out of her deep melancholy, and she is recovering by degrees. But all is still a burden to her, and she is, as it were, dead to the pleasures of the world. She believes that she can never overcome that sense of sorrow which seemed to have crushed her. Nevertheless she is cheerful, and even sometimes laughs heartily—but her eyes show that they have shed many tears.

Yesterday she drove me to a beautiful promenade through a Magnolia forest, along the shore of the Mexican Gulf. The magnolia is a laurel with evergreen foliage of a dark but clear colour; it is irregular in its form, but tall, and its head for the most part round and rich. Thick