F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 29
house.
"I have no letter, Madam--"
"I never receive people without letters-never!" she interrupts,
testily.
"But you see, Madam--"
"No I don't. I don't see anything about it!" again she interposes,
adjusting her spectacles, and scanning him anxiously from head to
foot. "Ah, yes (she twitches her head), I see what you are--"
"I was going to say, if you please, Madam, that my mission may serve
as a passport--"
"I'm of a good family, you must know, young man. You could have
learned that of anybody before seeking this sort of an introduction.
Any of our first families could have told you about me. You must go
your way, young man!" And she twitches her head, and pulls closer
about her lean shoulders the old red shawl.
"I (if you will permit me, Madam) am not ignorant of the very high
standing of your famous family--" Madam interposes by saying, every
muscle of her frigid face unmoved the while, she is glad he knows
something, "having read of them in a celebrated work by one of our
more celebrated genealogists--"
"But you should have brought a letter from the Bishop! and upon that
based your claims to a favorable reception. Then you have read of
Sir Sunderland Swiggs, my ancestor? Ah! he was such a Baron, and
owned such estates in the days of Elizabeth. But you should have
brought a letter, young man." Mrs. Swiggs replies rapidly,
alternately raising and lowering her squeaking voice, twitching her
head, and grasping tighter her Milton.
"Those are his arms and crest." She points with her Milton to a
singular hieroglyphic, in a wiry black frame, resting on the
marble-painted mantelpiece. "He was very distinguished in his time;
and such an excellent Christian." She shakes her head and wipes the
tears from her spectacles, as her face, which had before seemed
carved in wormwood, slightly relaxes the hardness of its muscles.
"I remember having seen favorable mention of Sir Sunderland's name
in the book I refer to--"
She again interposes. The young man watches her emotions with a
penetrating eye, conscious that he has touched a chord in which all