, and son, and now united
into one. The last and largest portion had been built by the present
proprietor; and it would have been as easy, it struck me, to have
pulled down the earlier erections and have built one compact house. The
reason the Creole gave for not having done so, did honour, I thought, to
his heart. "I wish my children constantly to remember," said he, "how
hard their ancestors toiled, and how poorly they lived, in order to
ensure better days to those who should come after them."

"And they will remember it," said a voice close behind us. I turned
round.

"_Madame Menou, j'ai l'honneur de vous presenter notre voisin, Monsieur
Howard._"

"_Qui restera longtems chez nous_," cried the two girls, skipping
forward, and before I had time to make my bow to the lady, taking me by
both hands and dragging me into the house, and through half a dozen
zigzag passages and corridors, to show me my room. This was a sexagonal
apartment, situated immediately over a small artificial lake, through
which flowed the rivulet before mentioned. It was the coolest and most
agreeable chamber in the house, on which account it had been allotted to
me. After I had declared my unqualified approval of it, my fair
conductresses took me down stairs again to papa and mamma, the latter of
whom I found to be a ladylike woman, with a countenance expressive of
good nature, and manners that at once made one feel quite at home. She
received me as if she had known me for years, without compliments or
ceremonious speeches, and without even troubling herself to screw her
features into the sort of holiday expression which many persons think it
necessary to assume on first acquaintance. I was soon engaged in a
conversation with her, in the middle of which a lady and two gentlemen
came out under the verandah and joined us. Their olive complexions and
foreign appearance at once attracted my attention, and I set them down
as Spaniards or of Spanish extraction. In this I was not mistaken. The
men were introduced to me as Senor Silveira and Don Pablo. The lady, who
was the wife of the former, was a remarkably lovely creature, tall and
elegant in person, with dark eyes, an aquiline and delicately-formed
nose, a beautiful mouth, enclosing pearl-like teeth. Hitherto I had held
our American fair ones to be the prettiest women in the world; but I now
almost felt inclined to alter my opinion. I was so struck by the fair
stranger's appearance that I could no