Читать книгу Who Would Have Thought It? - María Ruiz de Burton - Страница 12

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Mrs. CACKLE certainly brought startling news from Mrs. Norval's, whom she had just left. The Norvals were to have not only another carriage, another pair of horses, another man-servant, but another house. The doctor was going to buy Esquire Nugent's house, with its splendid gardens and greenhouses, where grapes were raised in profusion. The company were speechless with astonishment. Mr. Hammerhard was the first to break the silence by saying to Mrs. Cackle,

"But, with all your sagacity to find out things which no one else can find out, you haven't got hold of the source or the amount of their gold."

"That is not so easily ascertained, as neither Lavvy nor the girls seem to know anything about it; and Mrs. Norval evidently don't want to speak a word on that point. But with all that, one thing we can guess easy enough."

And what is that?" several voices asked. "That the little black child is in some way connected with the money. My son Beau, who is certainly very smart at guessing, thinks that the child's mother must have been some Indian woman who told the doctor where he could find rich gold-diggings, and that the doctor, out of gratitude,—for he has such funny notions -wants to educate the child and bring her up like a white girl."

"The doctor is a truthful man, and he says that the child has neither African nor Indian blood in her veins," observed Mr. Hackwell.

"If she had, Mrs. Norval would not take the girl in her carriage. Mrs. N. ain't that sort of person," said old Mr. Cackle.

"Mrs. Norval is a great abolitionist, and doesn't mind negroes. Besides, doesn't Lavvy take her poodle too?" Mrs. Hammerhard remarked.

"Mrs. Norval is a good abolitionist in talk," replied Miss Lucretia Cackle, with a sneer; "but she ain't so in practice. Polly, the cook, told our cook that the night the doctor arrived with Lola, Mrs. Norval insisted that the child should sleep with Hannah, or with the cook; but as she, the cook, despises niggers, she plainly told Mrs. Norval that she 'wouldn't have sich a catteypillar' in her bed; and as Hannah wouldn't have the black thing neither, Lola had to sleep on the floor in the hall. But when the doctor found it out next morning, he 'kicked up such a rumpus' and carried on so that Mrs. Norval was afraid he would 'bust a blood vessel.' And when he was very angry, he told Mrs. Norval that if she didn't treat Lola just the same as her own daughters, he would take her and the gold to New York, and put her under the care of Mr. William Sinclair, the banker, and Mrs. Norval should not have half an ounce of gold. Then a room was fixed up for Lola by Mrs. Noryal herself."

The party at Mr. Hackwell's were not the only friends busily engaged in guessing the origin, amount, and present destination of Dr. Norval's gold. All the village was similarly occupied. If the boxes had not been so heavy and so large, the guessers could have approached nearer the truth. But how could well-balanced Yankee minds ever lose their poise to the degree of imagining such fairy-tale balderdash as that enormous amount of gold? The truth of the thing was what baffled their wise calculations, for certain minds are impervious to certain truths.

The fact of Mrs. Norval tolerating Lola in her carriage, at her table, in her parlor, was also very astonishing. They all knew that "Mrs. Norval had never been known to give a poor nigger a penny;" and plenty of the poor wretches had been about the village, trying to raise subscriptions to buy the freedom of their children or their parents. The doctor was the one to give to the poor darkies; he always gave more than any other, though he never would put his name down, because, he said, he was "a good-for-nothing Democrat."

Whilst the village was guessing, the doctor invested all the money well. The rough pebbles had been sent to Europe to be made into jewelry, and had been pronounced first-class gems.

After awhile the sets ordered came. The remaining stones not used came all ready cut for setting.

The doctor remembered that Lola's mother had told him to take half of the stones, if he wished, so he thought he could conscientiously take a few of the smallest and have some pins and ear-rings made for his girls. He would also have a handsome breastpin and ear-rings for his wife, though he knew she would not wear diamonds.

Ruth's set was made of emeralds and diamonds, Mattie's of opals and diamonds, and that of Mrs. Norval of diamonds alone.

None of the ladies at Dr. Norval's slept the night the jewelry arrived. Ruth and Mattie kept awake with pleasure, Mrs. Norval with rage, and Lavinia with mortification. Poor Lavvy's eyes and nose were red next morning, and the doctor felt sorry to have forgotten his sister-in-law. In a few days, however, Lavvy's birthday came, and then she received a beautiful topaz set and a lovely diamond ring. When the doctor had thus, as he believed, propitiated all the ladies, he bought a coral pin and ear-rings for Lola, and thought they ought to be satisfied. But Mrs. Norval, as usual, thought differently. That night, when they retired to their bedroom, after she had read the Bible a long, long time, so that the doctor had nearly gone to sleep, she said, tying her night-cap,

"And are these things which you brought to us all that came out of your magnificent diamonds, and emeralds, and opals, and rubies?"

"Bless you, no! They are made out of the smallest stones, and the diamonds in those of the girls are the cuttings of the large diamonds in Lola's sets," answered the doctor, ingenuously.

Mrs. Norval felt as if she would smother or choke with rage. Her husband continued:

"If it wasn't for the risk, I would bring up, for you all to see, the beautiful sets made for Lola. Certainly, those French people do make splendid jewelry! There are six full sets of different stones: all have diamonds, and all are very handsome. There are several pins and crosses and aigrettes, besides the full sets,-enough to turn half a dozen women crazy."

"Describe the sets," said Mrs. Norval.

"Well, as to that, I don't know that I am equal to it," said the doctor, lying on his back.

"Let me see: one is all diamonds, worth two hundred thousand dollars" (Mrs. Norval held her breath and closed her lips tightly); " then there is one of emeralds and diamonds, which, I believe, is worth eighty thousand dollars; then one of pearls and diamonds, also worth eighty thousand dollars, or perhaps more,—I don't exactly remember; then one of opals and diamonds, worth forty thousand dollars; then one of rubies and diamonds, worth twenty thousand dollars. But the prettiest of all, to my thinking, is one of all those stones and pearls mixed. The breastpin is like a bouquet, and the necklace and ornament for the head and bracelets are like wreaths of flowers all sprinkled with diamond dew-drops: it is the prettiest thing in jewelry I ever saw! I am glad I took those stones to that house in New York, for they have acted very honorably with me. If they had not suggested to me the idea of exchanging some of the cut stones for pearls, I would never have thought of it. But they did; and they have made jewelry for the little girl handsome enough for a duchess. The value of the jewelry—all of it-is over half a million. Isn't the little thing rich? Sinclair tells me that in three years he will double her money."

"Where is all that jewelry?" asked Mrs. N.

"It is all locked up in an iron safe," the doctor answered, turning over to sleep.

Mrs. N. could not do that. She did not want the jewelry for herself, and she could not exactly approve of her daughters wearing such expensive things; but it made her heart ache to think that the black child would have these things. The doctor might speak about the child getting lighter by-and-by: she did not believe that. And would that little nigger be so rich, and her girls so poor? Their new carriages and splendid horses and handsome house, after all, did not make Mrs. N. happy.

Mrs. Norval could not sleep, thinking of Lola's magnificent jewelry. She was "too shocked to sleep."