| | 1 | Author: | Howells
William Dean
1837-1920 | Add | | | Title: | A chance acquaintance  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | ON the forward promenade of the Saguenay
boat which had been advertised to leave
Quebec at seven o'clock on Tuesday morning,
Miss Kitty Ellison sat tranquilly expectant of
the joys which its departure should bring, and tolerantly
patient of its delay; for if all the Saguenay
had not been in promise, she would have
thought it the greatest happiness just to have that
prospect of the St. Lawrence and Quebec. The
sun shone with a warm yellow light on the Upper
Town, with its girdle to gray wall, and on the red
flag that drowsed above the citadel, and was a
friendly lustre on the tinned roofs of the Lower
Town; while away off to the south and east and
west wandered the purple hills and the farmlit
plains in such dewy shadow and effulgence as
would have been enough to make the heaviest
heart glad. Near at hand the river was busy
with every kind of craft, and in the distance
was mysterious with silvery vapors; little breaths
of haze, like an ethereal colorless flame, exhaled
from its surface, and it all glowed with a
lovely inner radiance. In the middle distance a
black ship was heaving anchor and setting sail,
and the voice of the seamen came soft and sad
and yet wildly hopeful to the dreamy ear of the
young girl, whose soul at once went round the
world before the ship, and then made haste back
again to the promenade of the Saguenay boat. She
sat leaning forward a little with her hands fallen
into her lap, letting her unmastered thoughts play
as they would in memories and hopes around the
consciousness that she was the happiest girl in the
world, and blest beyond desire or desert. To have
left home as she had done, equipped for a single
day at Niagara, and then to have come adventurously
on, by grace of her cousin's wardrobe, as it
were, to Montreal and Quebec; to be now going up
the Saguenay, and finally to be destined to return
home by way of Boston and New York; — this
was more than any one human being had a right
to; and, as she had written home to the girls, she
felt that her privileges ought to be divided up
among all the people of Eriecreek. She was very
grateful to Colonel Ellison and Fanny for affording
her these advantages; but they being now out of
sight in pursuit of state-rooms, she was not thinking
of them in relation to her pleasure in the
morning scene, but was rather regretting the absence
of a lady with whom they had travelled
from Niagara, and to whom she imagined she
would that moment like to say something in praise
of the prospect. This lady was a Mrs. Basil March
of Boston; and though it was her wedding journey
and her husband's presence ought to have
absorbed her, she and Miss Kitty had sworn a
sisterhood, and were pledged to see each other
before long at Mrs. March's home in Boston. In
her absence, now, Kitty thought what a very
charming person she was, and wondered if all
Boston people were really like her, so easy and
friendly and hearty. In her letter she had told
the girls to tell her Uncle Jack that he had not
rated Boston people a bit too high, if she were to
judge from Mr. and Mrs. March, and that she was
sure they would help her as far as they could to
carry out his instructions when she got to Boston. DEAR GIRLS: Since the letter I wrote
you a day or two after we got here, we
have been going on very much as you
might have expected. A whole week has passed,
but we still bear our enforced leisure with fortitude;
and, though Boston and New York are both
fading into the improbable (as far as we are concerned),
Quebec continues inexhaustible, and I
don't begrudge a moment of the time we are giving
it. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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