Part 9 (1/2)
”How far any countrymen of mine, thorough-going or not, have reason to manifest extreme courtesy to any of your cruisers,” Eve laughingly replied, ”I shall leave Captain Truck to say. But, with you, I have long been at a loss to determine whether Mr. Blunt is an Englishman or an American, or indeed, whether he be either.”
”Long, Miss Effingham! He then has the honour of being well known to you?”
Eye answered steadily, though the colour mounted to her brow; but whether from the impetuous exclamation of her companion, or from any feeling connected with the subject of their conversation, the young man was at a loss to discover.
”Long, as girls of twenty count time--some four or five years; but you may judge how well, when I tell you I am ignorant of his country even.”
”And may I venture to ask which do you, yourself, give him credit for being, an American or an Englishman?”
Eve's bright eyes laughed, as she answered, ”You have put the question with so much finesse, and with a politeness so well managed, that I should indeed be churlish to refuse an answer:--Nay, do not interrupt me, and spoil all the good you have done by unnecessary protestations of sincerity.”
”All I wish to say is, to ask an explanation of a finesse, of which I am quite as innocent as of any wish to draw down upon myself the visitations of your displeasure.”
”Do you, then, really conceive it a _credit_ to be an American?”
”n.o.body of less modesty than yourself, Miss Effingham, under all the circ.u.mstances, would dream of asking the question.”
”I thank you for the civility, which must be taken as it is offered, I presume, quite as a thing _en regle_; but to leave our fine opinions of each other, as well as our prejudices, out of the question--”
”You will excuse me if I object to this, for I feel nay good sense implicated. _You_ can hardly attribute to me opinions so utterly unreasonable, so unworthy of a gentleman--so unfounded, in short! Am I not incurring all the risks and hards.h.i.+ps of a long sea-voyage, expressly to visit your great country, and, I trust, to improve by its example and society?”
”Since you appear to wish it, Mr. Sharp--” Eve glanced her playful eye up at him as she p.r.o.nounced the name--”I will be as credulous as a believer in animal magnetism: and that, I fancy, is pus.h.i.+ng credulity to the verge of reason. It is now settled between us, that you do conceive it an honour to be an American, born, educated, and by extraction.”
”All of which being the case with Miss Effingham.”
”All but the second; indeed, they write me fearful things concerning this European education of mine; some even go so far as to a.s.sure me I shall be quite unfitted to live in the society to which I properly belong!”
”Europe will be rejoiced to receive you back again, in that case; and no European more so than myself.”
The beautiful colour deepened a little on the cheek of Eve, but she made no immediate reply.
”To return to our subject,” she at length said; ”Were I required to say, I should not be able to decide on the country of Mr. Blunt; nor have I ever met with any one who appeared to know. I saw him first in Germany, where he circulated in the best company; though no one seemed acquainted with his history, even there. He made a good figure; was quite at his ease; speaks several languages almost as well as the natives of the different countries themselves; and, altogether, was a subject of curiosity with those who had leisure to think of any thing but their own dissipation and folly.”
Mr. Sharp listened with obvious gravity to the fair speaker, and had not her own eyes been fastened on the deck, she might have detected the lively interest betrayed in his. Perhaps the feeling which was at the bottom of all this, to a slight degree, influenced his answer.
”Quite an Admirable Crichton!”
”I do not say that, though certainly expert in tongues. My own rambling life has made me acquainted with a few languages, and I do a.s.sure you, this gentleman speaks three or four with almost equal readiness, and with no perceptible accent. I remember, at Vienna, many even believed him to be a German.”
”What! with the name of Blunt?”
Eve smiled, and her companion, who silently watched every expression of her varying countenance, as if to read her thoughts, noted it.
”Names signify little in these migratory times,” returned the young lady.
”You have but to imagine a _von_ before it, and it would pa.s.s at Dresden, or at Berlin. Von Blunt, _der Edelgeborne Graf Von Blunt, Hofrath_--or if you like it better, _Geheimer Rath mit Excellenz und eure Gnaden_”
”Or, _Baw-Berg-Veg-Inspector-Subst.i.tut!_” added Mr. Sharp, laughing. ”No, no! this will hardly pa.s.s. Blunt is a good old English name; but it has not finesse enough for Italian, German, Spanish, or anything else but John Bull and his family.”
”I see no necessity, for my part, for all this Bluntishness; the gentleman may think frankness a good travelling quality.”