Manchurian Books

We descended, therefore, into the valley, and resolved to
sleep at the first inn we came to.
More fortunate than most people in such cases, we not only found an
excellent hotel with clean rooms and good furniture, but fell in
with company which amused us in the highest degree. It consisted of
a mulatto family, and attracted all my attention. The wife, a
tolerably stout beauty of about thirty, was dressed out in a fashion
which, in my own country, no one, save a lady of an exceedingly
vulgar taste would ever think of adopting--all the valuables she
possessed in the world, she had got about her. Wherever it was
possible to stick anything of gold or silver, there it was sure to
be. A gown of heavy silk and a real cashmere enveloped her dark
brown body, and a charming little white silk bonnet looked very
comical placed upon her great heavy head. The husband and five
children were worthy of their respective wife and mother; and, in
fact, this excess of dress extended even to the nurse, a real
unadulterated negress, who was also overloaded with ornaments.


Pages:
74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98