Master
Harry was as rich,--oh, as rich as ever he like. He wore black now,
because Master George was dead; but you should see his chests full of
gold clothes, and lace, and jewels at Bristol. Of course, Master
Harry was the richest man in all Virginia, and might have twenty sixty
servants; only he liked travelling with one best, and that one, it need
scarcely be said, was Gumbo.

This story was not invented at once, but gradually elicited from Mr.
Gumbo, who might have uttered some trifling contradictions during the
progress of the narrative, but by the time he had told his tale twice or
thrice in the servants'-hall or the butler's private apartment, he
was pretty perfect and consistent in his part, and knew accurately the
number of slaves Madam Esmond kept, and the amount of income which she
enjoyed. The truth is, that as four or five blacks are required to do
the work of one white man, the domestics in American establishments
are much more numerous than in ours; and, like the houses of most other
Virginian landed proprietors, Madam Esmond's mansion and stables swarmed
with negroes.

Mr. Gumbo's account of his mistress's wealth and splendour was carried
to my lord by his lordship's man, and to Madame de Bernstein and my
ladies by their respective waiting-women, and, we may be sure, lost
nothing in the telling. A young gentleman in England is not the
less liked because he is reputed to be the heir to vast wealth and
possessions; when Lady Castlewood came to hear of Harry's prodigious
expectations, she repented of her first cool reception of him, and of
having pinched her daughter's arm till it was black-and-blue for having
been extended towards the youth in too friendly a manner. Was it too
late to have him back into those fair arms? Lady Fanny was welcome to
try, and resumed the dancing-lessons. The Countess would play the music
with all her heart. But, how provoking! that odious, sentimental Maria
would always insist upon being in the room; and, as sure as Fanny walked
in the gardens or the park, so sure would her sister come trailing after
her. As for Madame de Bernstein, she laughed, and was amused at the
stories of the prodigious fortune of her Virginian relatives. She knew
her half-sister's man of business in London, and very likely was aware
of the real state of Madame Esmond's money matters; but she did not
contradict the rumours which Gumbo and his fellow-servants had set
afloat; and was not a little diverted