Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/405

 eyes, long black hair, and brunette complexion, in strong contrast to the prevailing type of beauty in those regions in which light hair, light eyes, and blond complexions so generally predominate. She had, besides, a grace and elegance of movement very seldom seen in New England, — where every body is more or less awkward, — and all the freedom and vivacity of a bird, without the least touch either of that blunt, masculine rudeness, or of that embarrassed self-consciousness which spoils the address of so many of the Boston women. These, by the way, are Eliza's criticisms, not mine; and I shall, therefore, not hold myself answerable for their correctness.

She passed for the only daughter of Mr Curtis, the rich merchant of New Orleans, by a Spanish creole wife of his who had died many years ago; and as the reputation of an heiress was thus added to her personal attractions, you may be sure that she received a great many attentions; nor was she without offers even of marriage from some young sprigs of the Boston aristocracy; but to these she paid no sort of attention, as she and Montgomery had been promised to each other from early childhood.

On receiving information of the accident to his brother, Mr Agrippa Curtis had set off for Pittsburg, where he was; and in three or four weeks, he returned with news of his brother's death.

While mourning with all the energetic grief natural to her age and origin over this sad news, Eliza found herself strangely neglected by her late fond school companions, not one of whom came near her; and while she was wondering what the matter could be, she received a note from the teacher, with the information that he could not allow her in his school any longer. It seems that a report had suddenly spread, that Eliza had African blood in her veins; that she was not Mr Curtis's lawful child, nor his heir, but only the daughter of a slave woman.

Most fierce was the indignation expressed by the mothers of Eliza's school companions; especially by