Her father--alert, vivacious, handsome, with finely cut lips that were
quick to smile, and dark eyes that smiled when the lips were
still--followed her to the earth, shook out his ruffles, and extended his
gold snuffbox to his good friend Mr. Jaquelin. The gentleman who had
ridden beside the coach threw the reins of his horse to one of the negroes
who had come running from the Jaquelin stables, and, together with their
host, the three walked across the strip of grass to the row of expectant
gentry. Down went the town-bred lady until the skirt of her blue-green
gown lay in folds upon the buttercups; down went the ladies opposite in
curtsies as profound, if less exquisitely graceful. Off came the hats of
the gentlemen; the bows were of the lowest; snuffboxes were drawn out,
handkerchiefs of fine holland flourished; the welcoming speeches were
hearty and not unpolished.
It was a society less provincial than that of more than one shire that was
nearer to London by a thousand leagues. It dwelt upon the banks of the
Chesapeake and of great rivers; ships dropped their anchors before its
very doors. Now and again the planter followed his tobacco aboard. The
sands did not then run so swiftly through the hourglass; if the voyage to
England was long, why, so was life! The planters went, sold their
tobacco,--Sweet-scented, E. Dees, Oronoko, Cowpen, Non-burning,--talked
with their agents, visited their English kindred; saw the town, the opera,
and the play,--perhaps, afar off, the King; and returned to Virginia and
their plantations with the last but one novelty in ideas, manner, and
dress. Of their sons not a few were educated in English schools, while
their wives and daughters, if for the most part they saw the enchanted
ground only through the eyes of husband, father, or brother, yet followed
its fashions, when learned, with religious zeal. In Williamsburgh, where
all men went on occasion, there was polite enough living: there were the
college, the Capitol, and the playhouse; the palace was a toy St. James;
the Governors that came and went almost as proper gentlemen, fitted to
rule over English people, as if they had been born in Hanover and could
not speak their subjects' tongue.
So it was that the assembly which had risen to greet Mr. Jaquelin's latest
guests, besides being sufficiently well born, was not at all ill bred, nor
uninformed, nor untraveled. But it was not of the gay world as were the
three whom it welcomed. It had spent only months, not years, in England;
it had never kissed the King's hand; it did not know Bath nor the Wells;
it was innocent of drums and routs and masquerades; had not even a
speaking acquaintance with great lords and ladies; had never supped with
Pope, or been grimly smiled upon by the Dean of St. Patrick's, or courted
by the Earl of Peterborough. It had not, like the elder of the two men,
studied in the Low Countries, visited the Court of France, and contracted
friendships with men of illustrious names; nor, like the younger, had it
written a play that ran for two weeks, fought a duel in the Field of Forty
Footsteps, and lost and won at the Cocoa Tree, between the lighting and
snuffing of the candles, three thousand pounds.