THE LETTER OF INTRODUCTION. A NEW CHAPTER OF MRS. ALLANBY'S EXPERIENCE. BY MRS. A. M. F. ANNAN. "MY DEAR MARY-I know it will be a pleasure to you to become acquainted with my friends who will hand you this-Mrs. Dilberry and her two daughters. They are quite the aristocracy of our town, being very genteel, as you will find, and also independent as to property. They will be entire strangers in your city, and as they have made up their minds to take a trip there, (having the means, they intend to travel a great deal,) it is nothing but proper in me to give them this letter of introduction." | Dilberry" being encircled with a painted wreath of roses, torches, doves, and quivers, with other etceteras, the execution of which, on watch papers and other fancy wares, was once indispensable to the perfection of young-lady-craft. They were any thing but comme-il-faut, but recollecting that my future acquaintances were from a region where cards were by no means a necessary of life, I thought it unfair to make them the basis of any prejudications. To give my correspondent the due of prompt action upon her though I could not well spare the time for a long walk and a visit, for I had invited a small party to tea, to meet an agreeable Englishman and his accomplished wife, to whom my husband owed the rights of hospitality, and my preparations were yet to be made. The ladies had not returned to the hotel when I reached it, and leaving my card with an invitation to tea penciled upon it, and the hour specified, I hastened home. Such was the exordium of a letter signed "CATHE-letter, I set off without delay for the W Hotel, RINE CONOLLY," and dated from "Tarry-town," which I found on the centre-table one morning, after having been down the street to attend to a little business-giving a small order to a confectioner. The writer was an old school-mate of mine, whom, indeed, I had not seen since our school-days. She was Kitty Colville then-a fair, fat, freckled, squashylooking girl, who was a sort of common favorite from the good-nature with which she bore being the butt of our tricks, and the scape-goat of our trespasses. She afterward married a young country doctor, and, as I had learned, was settled in some outof-the-way village of which I had never known the name until I saw it at the head of her letter. I caught myself smiling as I laid down the missive, it was so characteristic of poor Kitty. After telling about her children, four in number, who were called after their grandfathers and grandmothers, John and Jacob, and Ruth and Sophia; and her husband, who had so much practice that he wore out a pair of saddle-bags every two years, she had filled the remainder of her page with apologies for her pen, ink, and bad writing. The neat but constrained chirography, into which she had been drilled at school by a teacher standing over her, had deteriorated into a scrawl, cramped here and straggling there, and the orthography testified that she no longer wrote with a dictionary at her elbow. "To chronicle small-beer," it was very evident, had long been the extent of her literary efforts. My heart always warms at the memory of my early days, and of those in any way pleasantly connected with them, and I felt glad to have an opportunity to prove to my old companion that I still remembered her with kindness. I took up the three cards which had been left with the letter. They had all been cut out of Bristol-board, and that not by square and rule. The first was inscribed with ink in a large, round hand, "Mrs. Dilberry, Tarry-town," with the addition, in pencil, of "W— Hotel." The second was got up in similar style, the name being "Miss Esther Ann Dilberry"-both having the down-strokes dotted and scalloped for ornament. The third was still more ambitious-" Miss Jane Louisa The hour for tea had arrived and my company had nearly all assembled, when I heard strange voices on the stairway, and presuming them to be those of the party from the W Hotel, I stepped out, to go through the ceremony of introduction with them, before presenting them to the rest of my guests. I was right in my conjecture, though their appearance was such as to take me aback considerably. Mrs. Dilberry was a short, coarse, oily-looking woman, with very light, round eyes, a low, slender nose, almost hidden between a pair of puffy, red cheeks, and a plump mouth, turned down at the corners. Though it was a warm summer evening, she was dressed in a heavy reddish brown silk, with a cape of the same. The remainder of her costume was a fine, though out-of-fashion French-work collar, a cap of coarselyfigured net, trimmed with thick cotton lace, intermixed with a quantity of common, deep-pink artificial flowers, of which the green leaves looked like plain glazed paper, and a very coarse pocket-handkerchief, with which she fanned herself incessantly. Her daughters, whose names she pronounced as Easter Ann and Jane Louyza, were quite as little prepossessing. The elder, who must have been thirty, was tall, spare and sour, with a sallow complexion, and a little turned up nose, quite out of proportion with her long upper lip, and the general dimensions of her face. The other, who looked ten years younger, was a youthful likeness of the mother, short, fat, and florid. From her manner it was apparent that she set up for a beauty. They both had on summer dresses-that of Miss Esther Ann having straight, perpendicular stripes, which made her look still taller, while the dumpiness of the sister seemed to be increased by one of a horizontal or run-round pattern; and they both wore clumsy, high-colored head trimmings, which had been somewhat in vogue the winter of the preceding year. "Dear me!" exclaimed the old lady, wiping her face with her handkerchief, "I am so flustered and fagged out!" "We had such a time hunting up a cap for maw," rejoined Miss Jane Louisa. "Not that she did not bring plenty along," corrected Miss Esther Ann, "but we thought that, as it was likely she would go out a great deal, she ought to have one of the newest fashion for evening dress." But the tea-trays were going into the drawingroom, and I hurried my trio after them. Whilst I was providing them with seats and introducing them to their neighbors, I heard on different sides of me a strange, burring, ticking sound, for which I could not account, and which, I perceived, attracted the attention of others beside myself. During the course of the evening I discovered its cause. Each of the three bad at her side a large gold repeater, which, having all been set by the same time, had simultaneously struck eight. In a movement to make room for my new arrival, Mr. Aylmere, my husband's English friend-(Mr. Allanby, by the by, had that morning been called unexpectedly away for several days, and I was doing the honors alone)-had taken possession of a seat next to that of Miss Esther Ann. I had a misgiving as to the impression he was likely to receive, but did not therefore evade the civility of introducing her. A few minutes afterward I caught the thread of a dialogue between them. "We intend to stay several weeks," said she, "and we expect to see a great deal of city society. We brought a letter of introduction to Mrs. Allanby from one of her most particular friends, a physician's lady, and of course she will think it her duty to make her circle acquainted with us. I dare say this party is intended for that." "That we do. Our town has three or four classes. Our own set are very exclusive, having none but lawyers and doctors, and the most genteel of the storekeepers, and we are very particular what strangers we pay attention to. We never call on any, of late, unless we find out that they are number one at home." "And I suppose it is somewhat difficult to ascertain that," rejoined Mr. Aylmere. "Not at all, sir. We know the names of two or three of the most genteel families in each of the large cities, and if the strangers are city people, some one finds out whether they know any of those. If they don't, we set them down for nobodies. If they are not from the cities, we find out what they do at home, and if they are professional, or live on their means, we know that they are exclusive; if not we keep clear of them. Tarry-town is considered a very proud place." "Has your town a large population to select from?" "Considerable-eight hundred or so. Though it is not a county-town, we have four lawyers, two of them, however, do n't practice, owning farms around the town; my brother is one of the two others. And we have three physicians, Mrs. Allanby's friend being the lady of one of them. The botanic doctor we don't count." "Do your rules of admission and rejection apply farther than to native Americans? If a foreigner, like myself for instance, were to go among you, how is it likely he would be received?" "Of course according to his standing in his own country," replied Miss Esther Ann, with imperturbable self-importance; "we understand very well how people are divided off in foreign countries, for we read a great deal. There's my sister, she positively swallows every novel she can lay her hands on, and it is surprising what a knowledge she has of the world and fashionable life. She says she would know a nobleman at a glance by his distingué air, "Have you no older acquaintances in the city?" (pronounced a la Anglaise;) maw does n't encourage asked Mr. Aylmere. "None that we shall claim. There are several persons from here that we were introduced to at different times in our own neighborhood, but we always found out afterward that they were not in the first circle, and we would not think our place to keep up the acquaintance even if we should happen to fall in with them." I acknowledge myself afflicted, in some degree, with what is called our "national thin-skinnedness" to the opinion of an intelligent and well-bred foreigner of any of my own countrymen or women; even such of them as I may despise myself; I, therefore, heartily wished my curious and quizzical-looking Englishman in the farthest corner of the room. I had not, however, at the moment, the ingenuity to send him there, and, instead, I made an effort to change the conversation. But my attention was called off directly, and I next heard him say her in it-like most elderly persons, maw has very old-fashioned notions; she tells her it teaches her to look too high." "And I am to infer that, according to the code of Tarry-town, you would hesitate to admit foreigners, unless they should be noblemen?" persisted Mr. Aylmere. 66 'Certainly, or grandees, or gentry, I believe the English call them. We have it on the best authority that no others are noticed in the large cities—that is, by the first people-and what is not good enough for them is not good enough for us. We think ourselves on a par with any city people, and, when we go to a city, nothing ought to satisfy us but the first. Birds of a feather ought always to flock together, in my opinion, and I'm sure, that after taking the lead in Tarry-town, if ever I went to Europe, I should make myself very choice of my associates. Europeans have the same right when they come here. Those "Then in your neighborhood you recognize vari- that are aristocracy at home have a right to be arisous grades of society?" tocracy every where else, and no others, and those that are not, and push themselves forward, are no side. I shall wear my old winter bonnet that I trabetter than impostors." “Then I am afraid I should stand a chance to be tabooed at Tarry-town," said Mr. Aylmere, "for I am an English merchant." During the progress of this conversation, Mrs. Dilberry, with a loud, though wheezing voice, was panting through a long harangue to Mrs. Aylmere, and two other ladies, in whose midst she had anchored herself. "I expected a great deal of pleasure in shopping when I came to the city," said she, "but it's precious little I'm likely to have, for shopping without making bargains is but a dry business. We tried it yesterday and this morning, my daughters and me, and plague a thing could we find that was any thing to signify cheaper than in the stores at Tarry-town. I told the girls that I now believed what the man said in the newspapers, that people in the city all live by cheating one another. One would think that as they live at head-quarters, some of them could now and then pick up things for little or nothing and sell them at half-price, but it seems they are all leagued together to get whatever they can. We went from one end of a street to the other, and every place they had pretty much the same goods, and asked the same prices, unless it was here and there where they put up every thing monstrously high, just to come down little by little on being jewed, and then they never got lower than their next door neighbors. I was talking about it to one of the boarders at the hotel, old Mrs. Scrooge, a very sharp, sensible woman-some of you ladies know her, I dare say. She let me into a secret about shopping, that is well worth knowing. She says it is bad policy for people to go shopping with their best bib and tucker on, for if they look as if they are well off in the world, it's a sure way to be taken advantage of, and that when she starts off among the stores, she always puts on a calico gown and a black straw bonnet which she keeps for that and for funerals." "And does her plan work well?" asked one of the ladies, at length breaking in upon the monologue. "Just wait, I am coming to it. She says that she had three nieces that came to the city to buy finery. They were very dressy women, and they wished to lay in a good supply. She told them her plan, but they hooted the thoughts of going into the street looking common, so they fixed themselves up, and went in their carriage, having made up their minds not to purchase at once, but to go every where first and get samples. Well, Mrs. Scrooge offered to assist them in gathering samples, but not a foot would she set in their carriage, but puts on her old things, and goes out after them, and sometimes into the very places where they were. When they all got back and compared samples, she showed the others that she could get many of the self-same things six or eight per cent. lower than they could. She says that she has crowed over them ever since. I'm sure I'm much obliged to her for giving me the hint, and I don't think any one will catch me shopping again with a silk dress on, and a four-dollar collar, and a gold watch at my veled in, and my faded mousseline de laine dress, and then they'll have to put their goods down to suit my appearance. The girls say if I do I may go alone, for they have no notion to look common, and while they are in the city they mean to put the best foot foremost. Easter Ann says we should always stand upon our dignity-she's very dignified herself. As to Jane Louyza, she says it looks mean and matterof-fact to be always counting the cost, and that if I'd let her, she would take every thing without asking the price, particularly when she is waited on by some of the spruce, handsome, fashionable young gentlemen that cut such a dash, showing off the goods to ladies. But they 'll learn better when they get older; indeed, Easter Ann is old enough now-she's no chicken, though she don't like me to tell her so, and I should n't wonder if they 'd learn to look after the main chance as well as their mother before them. If I had n't been uncommon keen in money matters their poor father would n't have died worth his twenty thousand cash, beside farms and stock, leaving them to sit up like ladies, with their hands in their laps." Miss Jane Louisa was sitting close by, engaged in what she called a "desperate flirtation" with two astonished-looking young men, the only beaux in the room, whom she seemed determined to monopolize, one of them being my brother-in-law, George Allanby, a youth of eighteen. She discussed love and matrimony with much languishment of manner, and novelty of pronunciation, and criticised her favorite novels after the following fashion: "Ain't the Bride of the Brier-field' beautiful? Don't tell me you have not read it!-dear me !—I was perfectly on thorns till I got it. Araminta is so sweet, I almost cried my eyes out when she died. Of course you've read the 'Pirate of Point Peepin?' Oh, how I do hate him! I declare I never see black whiskers on any of the gentlemen in the street that I a 'n't ready to scream, they put me so much in mind of Don Hildebrando." Intent upon conquest as she was, the loud accents of her mother sometimes disturbed the tenor of her softer themes, and she showed her apprehension that the old lady's discourse might not be in unison with the general tone of the company, by occasionally interpolating, "Just listen to maw!—did you ever know any one so old-fashioned;" or, maw will always talk so, but you city people will get used to her ways after a while;" or, "maw is so independent, she always says whatever comes into her head." I thought it time to interpose between the loquacity of Mrs. Dilberry and the politeness of her listeners, and placing myself beside her, I made inquiries in a low voice about our friend in common, Mrs. Conolly. But she was one of those people who are always best satisfied with a numerous auditory; and punching the shoulder of Mrs. Aylmere, while she pushed the knee of another lady, she re-commenced in a still higher key. "I believe I didn't tell you ladies how I happened to be in such good company. I brought a letter of introduction to Mrs. Allanby from one of her most THE LETTER OF particular friends, and that makes me feel quite at home with her, and almost as if she was a blood relation. You'll really have to come to Tarry-town, Mrs. Allanby, to pay a visit to Mrs. Conolly. I'm sure you'll never repent the expense of the journey, for she is settled very comfortably, and will introduce you to nobody but the very top of the town. Like my young people, she 's mighty particular about her associates. She is changed a good deal though, for looks-more, I dare say, than you have, Mrs. Allanby; but considering the wear and tear of married life, and the way she has to expose herself, for help is scarce in our section; not more so, perhaps, than might be expected, particularly when she is fixed up -which, to be sure, might be oftener, for she began to be careless in her dress almost as soon as she was married, and, though she has four children running about-troublesome, dirty little limbs, I can't help saying some of the wedding finery she brought out with her is quite good yet. She is a good deal more freckled, too, than she used to be, but that is no wonder, for I've seen her, many a time, out in the broiling sun in the garden cutting lettuce, without any thing on her head-she never was proud-except, indeed, a black bobinet cap; they are very much worn with us, as they save washing and are economical. And she has lost her two front teeth; no, I believe it is a front and an eye-tooth, and that, you know, always makes people look older. Her figure, though, looks genteeler than ever, for she is not so fat. The doctor says she is getting as poor as Job's turkey. Did you never see the doctor, Mrs. Allanby? he is as thin as a weasel, himself, but a mighty money-making little man. I did a great deal to get him into business, and he now goes along swimmingly. He first bought the house they live in, and last year he put up a new kitchen, and this spring he bought a handsome sofa and marble-topped table for the parlors. I should n't wonder if in a year or two he'd build an office, and have two parlors in his house, with folding-doors between them, as that is getting to be the fashion in Tarry-town. Some of us are pretty stylish." My friends, at length, began to withdraw, and I was at last left alone with the Dilberrys. The three repeaters struck eleven, and their mistresses exchanged whispers, and said something about getting back to their hotel. "You rode, I presume?" said 1. "Not we, indeed," returned Mrs. Dilberry; "I had enough of your hack-riding this morning. We did not know how to find the way here, so the landlord told us we had better take one of the hacks near the door. Well, we tried it, and, after we got back, though we hadn't once got out, except to look at some balzarines and lawns at two or three stores, the impudent black fellow had the face to charge us a dollar. This evening we knew that we could find the place well enough, and we started as soon as we saw the gas lighted in some of the shops, for we had to stop by the way to buy me a cap-the girls having got a notion into their heads, I suppose from their novels, that things intended for evening dress ought always to be bought by candle-light. After trouble enough I found a cap-this I have on; and was asked a pretty price, two dollars, only I jewed the woman down to one and three-quarters. When we came to your street we took the omnibus, and were let out down here at the corner. We thought, that as you had invited young ladies, you would of course provide beaux to gallant them home." "I can't say," observed Miss Esther Ann, waving her neck with much dignity, "that it was exactly treating strangers with politeness, in Miss Duncan and Miss Edwards to walk off with the only two beaux, and leave us without any." "The young gentlemen escorted them here," said I, "and according to custom were privileged to see them home. If I had known however, ladies, that you were unprovided with an escort, I should have requested my brother-in-law to return for you. But I will see what can be done. I have no carriage to offer you, my husband having taken our little turnout to the country." I went out to direct my man-servant to attend them, but was reminded that I had given him permission to go to his family, in which there was sickness, after the refreshments had been served. There was nothing now to be done but to ask my guests to remain over night. I did so, and the invitation was accepted with a hale-fellow-well-met jocularity quite uncalled for. Dinner, the next day, found me still playing the hostess to my Tarry-town party, whose cool at-home ness seemed ominous of a still more protracted visit. After we had left the table, George Allanby, unsuspicious of my being so occupied, called in. He was saluted with a bantering familiarity by the old lady, and with the most frigid reserve by her daughters. Miss Jane Louisa walked to the front windows, upon which she drummed perseveringly with her fingers, while her sister slowly paced the floor with measured steps, her head elevated, and her nostrils turned up as if they were snuffing the ceiling. Mrs. Dilberry exchanged glances with them, and then addressed herself to my brother-in-law: "I suppose, Mr. Allanby," said she, "you are very much taken by surprise to see us still spunging on your sister-in-law, but I must make free to tell you there's nobody to be blamed for it but yourself. I can't say I would give you city young men the choice over our country beaux for good manners, for you took yourselves off last night, and left us three ladies in the lurch, without a single soul to see us safe back to our tavern. I told the girls I'd speak my mind about it. I'm one of that kind that make no bones about speaking what they think, and then it's all over with me." I hastened to interpose with an explanation to the disturbed-looking youth, who seemed quite unconscious of the nature of his offence, but the old lady interrupted me by continuing "Mrs. Allanby has done her best to make us comfortable, and, indeed, I think myself in such good quarters, that, for my own part, I don't feel in any hurry to get away, but the girls have been in the dumps ever since. Jane Louyza, as you may see, is on a pretty high horse, and Easter Ann is sky-high, as she always is when she thinks she should stand on her dignity," and she nodded and winked toward them. "I exceedingly regret if I have failed in proper politeness," said George. "I am ready to offer a thousand apologies, or any amendé you may suggest." "Well, now, that's getting out of the scrape handsomely, after all," returned Mrs. Dilberry. "I knew from the way you and Jane Louyza got along last night that you could easily make it up, and would soon be as thick as two pick-pockets. Here, Jane Louyza, Mr. Allanby is ready to shake hands and be friends, and he says he is willing to make any amends you please for being impolite;" and as Miss Jane Louisa approached, simpering and holding out her large, red hand, her mother added: "There, now, you have him in your power. You know you always said you would jump out of your skin to see an opera, and now 's your time. I dare say he would think he was getting off very well to take you there to-night." "Certainly, ma'am," said poor George, coloring and stammering with the embarrassment common to his years, and turning to the daughters, he blundered on-"I shall be happy if Miss Jane Ann-that is, if both the young ladies will honor me with their company." I will be able to see and hear every thing, without being so conspicuous as to make any material change in your dress necessary. Strangers, who neither know any one nor are known themselves, generally prefer being unobserved, and saving themselves the trouble of much dressing. You will all do very well just as you are." "What do you say, girls," said Mrs. Dilberry; "that might do well enough for you and me, Mrs. Allanby," giving me a wink, "but I don't know how these two would like to hide their light under a bushel. Girls like to give the beaux a chance to look at them wherever they can, and I must say it's natural enough. As to the trouble of dressing, why we've got nothing else to do here, and people that have the wherewith may as well put it on their backs. The young ladies did not give their sentiments, but exchanged glances and whispered together, and Miss Esther Ann formally proposed going up for their bonnets. Reiterating their hopes of being able to catch an omnibus, to save them the fatigue of a long, warm walk, they took leave, not forgetting to volunteer abundant assurances that they would call every day and make themselves quite at home with me. As soon as they were gone I wrote a note to George, instilling a little worldly wisdom by means of advising him to go late to the theatre, when the front seats would be filled, and to place his com "With the greatest of pleasure," curtseyed the ec- panions where they would attract as little notice as static Jane Louisa. "The favor is to us," rejoined the dignified Esther Ann. "You are not to trick me that way, you young people," exclaimed Mrs. Dilberry. "I should like to go to the theatre as well as any of you, and if you a' n't civil enough to invite me, I'll go whether or no. Let's all go, Mrs. Allanby, and have a jolly time of it. You and I can beau each other." possible. The next morning whilst I was at breakfast, the young man came in. "Well, George, how did the opera come off?” asked I. "You mean the by-play, in which I was concerned," said he, passing his hand over his face. "Don't talk to me about chivalry toward all womankind again! But I'll let you have it from the begin I excused myself with rather more energy than was ning. In the first place, I took your advice, and went necessary. "Well, I mean to go, anyhow," resumed the old lady, "though, of course, I'll pay my own way. It would be imposing upon Mr. Allanby to make him go to the expense of paying for so many of us." "Not at all, ma'am," said George, looking still redder and more frightened, "where shall I call for you?" There was a pause, but as I had not the grace to break it by answering "here," Miss Esther Ann had to reply "We stop at the W – Hotel,” and the conscripted squire of dames made a precipitate retreat. "We'll have to go back to the hotel, maw, at once," said Miss Jane Louisa, "for you know ladies must always go to the opera in full-dress. I'll have to press out my book-lauslin dress, and take the wreath off my bonnet to wear on my head, and Easter Ann must fix something to put on." "That will be quite unnecessary," said I, anticipating all sorts of mortifications for my inexperienced brother-in-law, "you may have seats where you to the W Hotel rather late. I was shown into what, I presume, was the ladies' saloon, for there were a couple of dozens of female faces, of all sorts, turned toward me, as if I were something anxiously expected, and very queer when I had come. I understood it all in a minute, though, for right in the middle of the room, parading between two tall glasses, in which they could see themselves back and front, were the Dilberrys, the objects of all the nodding and tittering I had observed before I came in for my share of attention. The old lady espied me first, and puffing out, loud enough to be heard all over the room, 'here he comes girls-here comes our beau at last,' she ran forward as if she were going to seize hold of me, the other two following with their arms, grace-like, twined about each other. 'La, Mr. Allanby, you have served us a pretty trick-keeping us waiting so long!' exclaimed Miss Esther Ann, 'I should n't wonder if we were not to get seats at all.' 'I'm ready to pout at you, I wanted so to see every body come in,' said the other. We were almost ready to give you up, and had all these ladies com |