One gleam of hope visited me--an order for a bust from
a rich Southerner. He was free-handed, jolly of
speech, merry of countenance; kept me in good-humour
through the sittings, and, when they were over, carried
me off with him to dinner and the sights of Paris. I
ate well, I laid on flesh; by all accounts I made a
favourable likeness of the being, and I confess I
thought my future was assured. But when the bust was
done, and I had despatched it across the Atlantic, I
could never so much as learn of its arrival. The blow
felled me; I should have lain down and tried no stroke
to right myself, had not the honour of my country been
involved. For Dijon improved the opportunity in the
European style, informing me (for the first time) of
the manners of America: how it was a den of banditti,
without the smallest rudiment of law or order, and
debts could be there only collected with a shot-gun.
"The whole world knows it," he would say; "you are
alone, MON PETIT Loudon--you are alone, to be in
ignorance of these facts. The judges of the Supreme
Court fought but the other day with stilettos on the
bench at Cincinnati.
Pages:
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121