The Blithedale Romance - Page 103/170

Just about this time a waiter entered my room. The truth was, I had

rung the bell and ordered a sherry-cobbler.

"Can you tell me," I inquired, "what families reside in any of those

houses opposite?"

"The one right opposite is a rather stylish boarding-house," said the

waiter. "Two of the gentlemen boarders keep horses at the stable of

our establishment. They do things in very good style, sir, the people

that live there."

I might have found out nearly as much for myself, on examining the

house a little more closely, in one of the upper chambers I saw a young

man in a dressing-gown, standing before the glass and brushing his hair

for a quarter of an hour together. He then spent an equal space of

time in the elaborate arrangement of his cravat, and finally made his

appearance in a dress-coat, which I suspected to be newly come from the

tailor's, and now first put on for a dinner-party. At a window of the

next story below, two children, prettily dressed, were looking out. By

and by a middle-aged gentleman came softly behind them, kissed the

little girl, and playfully pulled the little boy's ear. It was a papa,

no doubt, just come in from his counting-room or office; and anon

appeared mamma, stealing as softly behind papa as he had stolen behind

the children, and laying her hand on his shoulder to surprise him.

Then followed a kiss between papa and mamma; but a noiseless one, for

the children did not turn their heads.

"I bless God for these good folks!" thought I to myself. "I have not

seen a prettier bit of nature, in all my summer in the country, than

they have shown me here, in a rather stylish boarding-house. I will

pay them a little more attention by and by."

On the first floor, an iron balustrade ran along in front of the tall

and spacious windows, evidently belonging to a back drawing-room; and

far into the interior, through the arch of the sliding-doors, I could

discern a gleam from the windows of the front apartment. There were no

signs of present occupancy in this suite of rooms; the curtains being

enveloped in a protective covering, which allowed but a small portion

of their crimson material to be seen. But two housemaids were

industriously at work; so that there was good prospect that the

boarding-house might not long suffer from the absence of its most

expensive and profitable guests. Meanwhile, until they should appear,

I cast my eyes downward to the lower regions. There, in the dusk that

so early settles into such places, I saw the red glow of the kitchen

range. The hot cook, or one of her subordinates, with a ladle in her

hand, came to draw a cool breath at the back door. As soon as she

disappeared, an Irish man-servant, in a white jacket, crept slyly

forth, and threw away the fragments of a china dish, which,

unquestionably, he had just broken. Soon afterwards, a lady, showily

dressed, with a curling front of what must have been false hair, and

reddish-brown, I suppose, in hue,--though my remoteness allowed me only

to guess at such particulars,--this respectable mistress of the

boarding-house made a momentary transit across the kitchen window, and

appeared no more. It was her final, comprehensive glance, in order to

make sure that soup, fish, and flesh were in a proper state of

readiness, before the serving up of dinner.