Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/71

Rh countenance, refined and gentle manners, and during long journeys into the East and West he has become acquainted with many subjects of interest. Now again is he my cavalier; as a matter of course, gives me his arm to and from meals, sits at table beside me, and makes his attentions to me agreeable by his interesting and agreeable demeanour and conversation.

This vessel was not like the other splendid and convenient steamers, to which I had become accustomed in America. All below deck was crowded and dark—cabins, passages, eating-rooms. In order to be alone, I had chosen my cabin quite aft, where the motion of the vessel was most perceptible; here, however, I could have a little solitary three-cornered cell, with a round window opening out on the sea. Of sea-sickness I was not afraid, and here I could be alone.

Among the passengers of interest on board was an elderly man, one of the richest planters of Louisiana, and his only child, a young girl. Her mother had died of consumption, and the father ever since the childhood of his daughter, had endeavoured so to bring her up that she might be preserved from the dangerous inheritance. She had lived in great freedom in the country, spent much of her time in the open air, and did not wear stays. Thus she grew up a handsome, blooming girl, and as such made her appearance in society. After merely one season of tight-lacing and dancing in the social circles of New Orleans, the lovely flower was broken; and symptoms of the disease which had carried off the mother showed themselves in the daughter. The brightness of the eye, the flush of the cheek, its hollowness, the bearing of the tall, slender figure, all testified of danger.

It was affecting to see the old father stand and gaze silently at his daughter, with eyes that grew dim with tears. There was such a speechless sorrow, such a deep feeling of helplessness in his expression. Then she would