I came forward at this juncture, and, having allowed them to remove
into the small tenement to which, in their reduced condition they
found it prudent to retire, I requested a private interview with
Mrs. Clifford, and readily obtained it.
I was received by the good lady in apparent state. All the little
furniture which she could save from the former, was transferred
very inappropriately to the present dwelling-house. The one was
quite unsuited to the other. The massive damask curtains accorded
badly with the little windows over which they were now suspended,
and the sofa, ten feet in length, occupied an unreasonable share
of an apartment twelve by sixteen. The dais of piled cushions, on
which so many fashionable groups had lounged in better times, now
seemed a mountain, which begot ideas of labor, difficulty, and
up-hill employment, rather than ease, as the eye beheld it cumbering
two thirds of the miserable area into which it was so untastefully
compressed. These, and other articles of splendor and luxury,
if sold, would have yielded her the means to buy furniture more
suitable to her circumstances and situation, and left her with
some additional resources to meet the daily and sometimes pressing
exigencies of life.
The appearance of this parlor argued little in behalf of the salutary
effect which such reverses might be expected to produce in a mind
even tolerably sensible. They argued, I fancied, as unfavorably for
my suit as for the humility of the lady whom I was about to meet.
If the parlor of Mrs. Clifford bore such sufficient tokens of her
weakness of intellect, her own costume betrayed still more. She had
made her person a sort of frame or rack upon which she hung every
particle of that ostentatious drapery which she was in the habit
of wearing at her fashionable evenings. A year's income was paraded
upon her back, and the trumpery jewels of three generations found
a place on every part of her person where it is usual for fashionable
folly to display such gewgaws. She sailed into the room in a style
that brought to my mind instantly the description which Milton gives
of the approach of Delilah to Samson, after the first days of his
blind captivity:-"But who is this, what thing of se or land?--
Female of sex it seems--
That so bedecked, ornate and gay,
Comes this way sailing, like a stately ship
Of Tarsus, bound for the isles
Of Javan or Gadire,
With all her bravery on and tackle trim,
Sails filled, and streamers waving,
Courted by all the winds that hold their play,
An amber scent of odorous perfume
Her harbinger!"
No description could have been more, just and literal in the case
of Mrs. Clifford. I could scarce believe my eyes; and when forced
to do so, I could scarcely suppose that this bravery was intended
for my eyes only. Nor was it;--but let me not anticipate. This
spectacle, I need not say, sobered me entirely, if anything
was necessary to produce this effect, and increased the grave
apprehensions which were already at my heart. The next consequence
was to make the manner of my communication serious even to severity.
A smile, which was of that doubtful sort which is always sinister
and offensive, overspread her lips as she motioned me to resume
the seat from which I had risen at her entrance; while she threw
herself with an air of studied negligence upon one part of the
sofa. I felt the awkwardness of my position duly increased, as
her house, dress, and manner, convinced me that she was not yet
subdued to hers; but a conscious rectitude of intention carried me
forward, and lightened the task to my feelings.