A Fair Barbarian | Page 8

is on the street. Besides,
they would never wear out if one took too much care of them."
When they went into the parlor, and sat down, Lady Theobald made

excellent use of her time, and managed to hear again all that had tried
and bewildered Miss Belinda. She had no hesitation in asking questions
boldly; she considered it her privilege to do so: she had catechised
Slowbridge for forty years, and meant to maintain her rights until Time
played her the knave's trick of disabling her.
In half an hour she had heard about the silver-mines, the gold-diggers,
and L'Argentville; she knew that Martin Bassett was a millionnaire, if
the news he had heard had not left him penniless; that he would return
to England, and visit Slowbridge, as soon as his affairs were settled.
The precarious condition of his finances did not seem to cause Octavia
much concern. She had asked no questions when he went away, and
seemed quite at ease regarding the future.
"People will always lend him money, and then he is lucky with it," she
said.
She bore the catechising very well. Her replies were frequently rather
trying to her interlocutor, but she never seemed troubled, or ashamed of
any thing she had to say; and she wore, from first to last, that
inscrutably innocent and indifferent little air.
She did not even show confusion when Lady Theobald, on going away,
made her farewell comment:--
"You are a very fortunate girl to own such jewels," she said, glancing
critically at the diamonds in her ears; "but if you take my advice, my
dear, you will put them away, and save them until you are a married
woman. It is not customary, on this side of the water, for young girls to
wear such things--particularly on ordinary occasions. People will think
you are odd."
"It is not exactly customary in America," replied Octavia, with her
undisturbed smile. "There are not many girls who have such things.
Perhaps they would wear them if they had them. I don't care a very
great deal about them, but I mean to wear them."
Lady Theobald went away in a dudgeon.

"You will have to exercise your authority, Belinda, and make her put
them away," she said to Miss Bassett. "It is absurd--besides being
atrocious."
"Make her!" faltered Miss Bassett.
"Yes, 'make her'--though I see you will have your hands full. I never
heard such romancing stories in my life. It is just what one might
expect from your brother Martin."
When Miss Bassett returned, Octavia was standing before the window,
watching the carriage drive away, and playing absently with one of her
ear-rings as she did so.
"What an old fright she is!" was her first guileless remark.
Miss Belinda quite bridled.
"My dear," she said, with dignity, "no one in Slowbridge would think
of applying such a phrase to Lady Theobald."
Octavia turned around, and looked at her.
"But don't you think she is one?" she exclaimed. "Perhaps I oughtn't to
have said it; but you know we haven't any thing as bad as that, even out
in Nevada--really!"
"My dear," said Miss Belinda, "different countries contain different
people; and in Slowbridge we have our standards,"--her best cap
trembling a little with her repressed excitement.
But Octavia did not appear overwhelmed by the existence of the
standards in question. She turned to the window again.
"Well, anyway," she said, "I think it was pretty cool in her to order me
to take off my diamonds, and save them until I was married. How does
she know whether I mean to be married, or not? I don't know that I care
about it."

CHAPTER V.
LUCIA.
In this manner Slowbridge received the shock which shook it to its
foundations, and it was a shock from which it did not recover for some
time. Before ten o'clock the next morning, everybody knew of the
arrival of Martin Bassett's daughter.
The very boarding-school (Miss Pilcher's select seminary for young
ladies, "combining the comforts of a home," as the circular said, "with
all the advantages of genteel education") was on fire with it, highly
colored versions of the stories told being circulated from the "first
class" downward, even taking the form of an Indian princess, tattooed
blue, and with difficulty restrained from indulging in
war-whoops,--which last feature so alarmed little Miss Bigbee, aged
seven, that she retired in fear and trembling, and shed tears under the
bedclothes; her terror and anguish being much increased by the stirring
recitals of scalping-stories by pretty Miss Phipps, of the first class--a
young person who possessed a vivid imagination, and delighted in
romances of a tragic turn.
"I have not the slightest doubt," said Miss Phipps, "that when she is at
home she lives in a wampum."
"What