"I hope not," said my wife. "You have got us into such comfortable
quarters here, Mr. Kingsley, that I hope you will do nothing to
tempt my husband farther. Go farther and fare worse, you know. Let
well enough alone."
"Oh. I beseech you!--two proverbs at a time will be fatal to one
or other of us. Perhaps both. But he can not fare worse by going
to Texas."
"He will do well enough here."
"Perhaps."
"Recover your lands, for example, as a beginning."
"Ah! now you would bribe me. That is certainly a suggestion to
make me keep my tongue, at least until the verdict is rendered.
'Till then, you know, I shall make no permanent remove myself."
"But do you mean to go before the trial?" I asked.
"Yes, for a couple of months or so. I should only get into some
squabble with my opponents by remaining here; and I may be preparing
for all of us by going in season. I will look out for a township,
Mrs. Clifford, on the edge of some beautiful prairie, and near some
beautiful river. Your husband has a passion for water prospects,
I can tell you, and would become a misanthrope without them. I
am doubtful if he will be happy, indeed, if not within telescope
distance from the sea itself. I don't think that a river will
altogether satisfy him."
"Oh yes, THIS must;" and as she spoke she pointed to the fair glassy
surface of the Alabama, as it stretched away, at intervals, in
broad glimpses before our eyes.
"Well, we shall see; but I will make my preparations, nevertheless,
precisely as if he were not likely to be content. I have formed
to myself a plan for all of you. I must make a dear little colony
of our own in Texas. We shall have a nest of the sweetest little
cottages, each with its neat little garden. In the centre we shall
have a neat little playground for our neat little children; on the
hill a neat little church; in the grove a neat little library; on
the river a neat little barge; and over this neat little empire,
you, Lady Clifford, shall be the neat little empress."
"Dear me! what a neat little establishment!"
"It shall be all that, I assure you; and it shall have other advantages.
You shall have a kingdom free from taxes and wars. There shall be
no law-givers but yourself. We shall have no elections except when
we elect our wives, and the women shall be the only voters then. We
shall have no custom houses--everything shall be free of duty;--we
shall have no banks--everything shall be free of charge;--we shall
have no parson, for shall we not be sinless?"