Part 30 (1/2)
Flora held the parrot up to the cage, and said, ”_Bon jour, jolie Manon_!”
”_Bon jour_!” repeated the bird, and hopped upon her perch.
After they had entered the carriage, Flora said: ”How melancholy it seems that everybody is gone, except _Jolie Manon_! How glad the poor thing seemed to be to see me! I wish I could take her home.”
”I will send to inquire whether the lady will sell her,” replied her friend.
”O Mamita, you will spoil me, you indulge me so much,” rejoined Flora.
Mrs. Delano smiled affectionately, as she answered: ”If you were very spoilable, dear, I think that would have been done already.”
”But it will be such a bother to take care of Manon,” said Flora.
”Our new servant Chloe can do that,” replied Mrs. Delano. ”But I really hope we shall get home without any further increase of our retinue.”
From the clerk information was obtained that he heard Mr. Duroy tell Mr. Bruteman that a lady named Rosabella Royal had sailed to Europe with Signor and Madame Papanti in the s.h.i.+p Mermaid. He added that news afterward arrived that the vessel foundered at sea, and all on board were lost.
With this sorrow on her heart, Flora returned to Boston. Mr. Percival was immediately informed of their arrival, and hastened to meet them.
When the result of their researches was told, he said: ”I shouldn't be disheartened yet. Perhaps they didn't sail in the Mermaid. I will send to the New York Custom-House for a list of the pa.s.sengers.”
Flora eagerly caught at that suggestion; and Mrs. Delano said, with a smile: ”We have some other business in which we need your help. You must know that I am involved in another slave case. If ever a quiet and peace-loving individual was caught up and whirled about by a tempest of events, I am surely that individual. Before I met this dear little Flora, I had a fair prospect of living and dying a respectable and respected old fogy, as you irreverent reformers call discreet people. But now I find myself drawn into the vortex of abolition to the extent of helping off four fugitive slaves. In Flora's case, I acted deliberately, from affection and a sense of duty; but in this second instance I was taken by storm, as it were. The poor woman was aboard before I knew it, and I found myself too weak to withstand her imploring looks and Flora's pleading tones.” She went on to describe the services Chloe had rendered to Rosa, and added: ”I will pay any expenses necessary for conveying this woman to a place of safety, and supplying all that is necessary for her and her children, until she can support them; but I do not feel as if she were safe here.”
”If you will order a carriage, I will take them directly to the house of Francis Jackson, in Hollis Street,” said Mr. Percival. ”They will be safe enough under the protection of that honest, st.u.r.dy friend of freedom. His house is the depot of various subterranean railroads; and I pity the slaveholder who tries to get on any of his tracks. He finds himself 'like a toad under a harrow, where ilka tooth gies him a tug,'
as the Scotch say.”
While waiting for the carriage, Chloe and her children were brought in. Flora took the little ones under her care, and soon had their ap.r.o.ns filled with cakes and sugarplums. Chloe, unable to restrain her feelings, dropped down on her knees in the midst of the questions they were asking her, and poured forth an eloquent prayer that the Lord would bless these good friends of her down-trodden people.
When the carriage arrived, she rose, and, taking Mrs. Delano's hand, said solemnly: ”De Lord bress yer, Missis! De Lord bress yer! I seed yer once fore ebber I knowed yer. I seed yer in a vision, when I war prayin' to de Lord to open de free door fur me an' my chillen. Ye war an angel wid white s.h.i.+ny wings. Bress de Lord! 'T war Him dat sent yer.--An' now, Missy Flory, de Lord bress yer! Ye war allers good to poor Chloe, down dar in de prison-house. Let me gib yer a kiss, little Missy.”
Flora threw her arms round the bended neck, and promised to go and see her wherever she was.
When the carriage rolled away, emotion kept them both silent for a few minutes. ”How strange it seems to me now,” said Mrs. Delano, ”that I lived so many years without thinking of the wrongs of these poor people! I used to think prayer-meetings for slaves were very fanatical and foolish. It seemed to me enough that they were included in our prayer for 'all cla.s.ses and conditions of men'; but after listening to poor Chloe's eloquent outpouring, I am afraid such generalizing will sound rather cold.”
”Mamita,” said Flora, ”you know you gave me some money to buy a silk dress. Are you willing I should use it to buy clothes for Chloe and her children?”
”More than willing, my child,” she replied. ”There is no clothing so beautiful as the raiment of righteousness.”
The next morning, Flora went out to make her purchases. Some time after, Mrs. Delano, hearing voices near the door, looked out, and saw her in earnest conversation with Florimond Blumenthal, who had a large parcel in his arms. When she came in, Mrs. Delano said, ”So you had an escort home?”
”Yes, Mamita,” she replied; ”Florimond would bring the parcel, and so we walked together.”
”He was very polite,” said Mrs. Delano; ”but ladies are not accustomed to stand on the doorstep talking with clerks who bring bundles for them.”
”I didn't think anything about that,” rejoined Flora. ”He wanted to know about Rosa, and I wanted to tell him. Florimond seems just like a piece of my old home, because he loved papa so much. Mamita Lila, didn't you say papa was a poor clerk when you and he first began to love one another?”
”Yes, my child,” she replied; and she kissed the bright, innocent face that came bending over her, looking so frankly into hers.
When she had gone out of the room, Mrs. Delano said to herself, ”That darling child, with her strange history and unworldly ways, is educating me more than I can educate her.”
A week later, Mr. and Mrs. Percival came, with tidings that no such persons as Signor and Madame Papanti were on board the Mermaid; and they proposed writing letters of inquiry forthwith to consuls in various parts of Italy and France.