ers,
one would think, that they acquired the self-possessed and scrutinizing,
although not immodest gaze, with which I at times observed them to be
examining me. The eldest is apparently about nineteen years of age,
slightly inclined to _embonpoint_. It was really amusing to observe the
cool, comfortable manner, in which she inspected me in a large mirror
that hangs opposite to us, as if she had been desirous of seeing how
long I could stand my ground and keep my countenance.

It would fill a book to enumerate all the items of baggage and effects
which my new friends the Creoles had crowded into the state-cabin.
Luckily, they were the only inmates of the latter, and had,
consequently, full power in their temporary dominions. Had there been
co-occupants, a civil war must have been the inevitable result. The
ladies had a whole boat-load of citrons, oranges, bananas, and
pine-apples; and their father had at least three dozen cases of
Chambertin, Laffitte, and Medoc. I at first thought he must be a
wine-merchant. At any rate he showed his good taste in stocking himself
with such elegant and salutary drinkables, instead of the gin, and
whisky, and Hollands to which many of my countrymen would have given the
preference--those green and brown compounds, elixirs of sin and disease,
concocted by rascally distillers for the corruption and ruin of Brother
Jonathan.

The tea was now ready. Monsieur Menou (that was the name of my new
friend) seemed inclined to reject the sober beverage, and stick to his
Chambertin. I was disposed to try both. The young ladies were all that
was gay and agreeable. They were really charming girls, merry and
lively, full of ready wit, and with bright eyes and pleasant voices,
that might have cheered the heart of the veriest misanthrope. But there
are moments in one's life when the mind and spirits seem oppressed by a
sort of dead dull calm, as enervating and disheartening as that which
succeeds a West Indian hurricane in the month of August. At those times
every thing loses its interest, and one appears to become as helpless as
the ship that lies becalmed and motionless on the glassy surface of a
tropical sea. I was just in one of those moments. I had consulted any
thing but my own inclination in leaving the hospitable roof and pleasant
companionship of my friend Richards, to return to my own neglected and
long-unvisited plantation, where I should find no society, and should be
compelled to occupy mys