F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 58
she says with two very dignified nods. As the Judge passes silently
in she pats him encouragingly on the back, saying,--"There ain't no
one in this house what'll hurt a hair on your head." The Judge heeds
not what she says.
"My honor for it, Madame, but I think your guests highly favored,
altogether! Fine weather, and the prospect of a bal-masque of
Pompeian splendor. The old Judge, eh?"
"The gods smile-the gods smile, Mr. Soloman!" interrupts the
hostess, bowing and swaying her head in rapid succession.
"The gods have their eye on him to-night-he's a marked man! A jolly
old cove of a Judge, he is! Cares no more about rules and
precedents, on the bench, than he does for the rights and precedents
some persons profess to have in this house. A high old blade to
administer justice, eh?"
"But, you see, Mr. Soloman," the hostess interrupts, a gracious bow
keeping time with the motion of her hand, "he is such an
aristocratic prop in the character of my house."
"I rather like that, I confess, Madame. You have grown rich off the
aristocracy. Now, don't get into a state of excitement!" says Mr.
Soloman, fingering his long Saxon beard, and eyeing her
mischievously. She sees a bevy of richly-dressed persons advancing
up the hall in high glee. Indeed her house is rapidly filling to the
fourth story. And yet they come! she says. "The gods are in for a
time. I love to make the gods happy."
Mr. Soloman has lain his hand upon her arm retentively.
"It is not that the aristocracy and such good persons as the Judge
spend so much here. But they give eclat to the house, and eclat is
money. That's it, sir! Gold is the deity of our pantheon! Bless you
(the hostess evinces the enthusiasm of a politician), what better
evidence of the reputation of my house than is before you, do you
want? I've shut up the great Italian opera, with its three squalling
prima donnas, which in turn has shut up the poor, silly Empresario,
as they call him; and the St. Cecilia I have just used up. I'm a
team in my way, you see;--run all these fashionable oppositions right