Louisiana

Hodgson Burnett Frances

Description

Two young women are sent to a North Carolina resort to recover after illnesses. One is a cultured New Yorker, and the other -- the Louisiana of the book's title -- is a beautiful but unpolished country girl. Both find themselves out of their element at the resort, so they band together and become fast friends -- and learn a lot about what it means to be different in the process.

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776534197
• Langue: English

Extrait

LOUISIANA
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FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT
 
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Louisiana First published in 1880 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-419-7 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-420-3 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter I - Louisiana Chapter II - Worth Chapter III - "He is Different" Chapter IV - A New Type Chapter V - "I Have Hurt You" Chapter VI - The Road to the Right Chapter VII - "She Aint Yere" Chapter VIII - "Nothing Has Hurt You" Chapter IX - "Don't Ye, Louisianny?" Chapter X - The Great World Chapter XI - A Rusty Nail Chapter XII - "Mebbe" Chapter XIII - A New Plan Chapter XIV - Confessions Chapter XV - "Ianthy!" Chapter XVI - "Don't Do No One a Onjestice" Chapter XVII - A Leaf Chapter XVIII - "He Knew that I Loved You"
Chapter I - Louisiana
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Olivia Ferrol leaned back in her chair, her hands folded upon her lap.People passed and repassed her as they promenaded the long "gallery,"as it was called; they passed in couples, in trios; they talked withunnecessary loudness, they laughed at their own and each other's jokes;they flirted, they sentimentalized, they criticised each other, butnone of them showed any special interest in Olivia Ferrol, nor did MissFerrol, on her part, show much interest in them.
She had been at Oakvale Springs for two weeks. She was alone, out ofher element, and knew nobody. The fact that she was a New Yorker, andhad never before been so far South, was rather against her. On herarrival she had been glanced over and commented upon with candor.
"She is a Yankee," said the pretty and remarkably youthful-lookingmother of an apparently grown-up family from New Orleans. "You can seeit."
And though the remark was not meant to be exactly severe, Olivia feltthat it was very severe, indeed, under existing circumstances. Sheheard it as she was giving her orders for breakfast to her ownparticular jet-black and highly excitable waiter, and she felt guiltyat once and blushed, hastily taking a sip of ice-water to conceal herconfusion. When she went upstairs afterward she wrote a veryinteresting letter to her brother in New York, and tried to make ananalysis of her sentiments for his edification.
"You advised me to come here because it would be novel as well asbeneficial," she wrote. "And it certainly is novel. I think I feellike a Pariah—a little. I am aware that even the best bred and mostintelligent of them, hearing that I have always lived in New York, willprivately regret it if they like me and remember it if they dislike me.Good-natured and warm-hearted as they seem among themselves, I am sureit will be I who will have to make the advances—if advances aremade—and I must be very amiable, indeed, if I intend that they shalllike me."
But she had not been well enough at first to be in the humor to makethe advances, and consequently had not found her position an excitingone. She had looked on until she had been able to rouse herself tosome pretty active likes and dislikes, but she knew no one.
She felt this afternoon as if this mild recreation of looking on hadbegun rather to pall upon her, and she drew out her watch, glancing atit with a little yawn.
"It is five o'clock," she said. "Very soon the band will make itsappearance, and it will bray until the stages come in. Yes, there itis!"
The musical combination to which she referred was composed of six orseven gentlemen of color who played upon brazen instruments, each indifferent keys and different time. Three times a day they collected ona rustic kiosk upon the lawn and played divers popular airs with anintensity, fervor, and muscular power worthy of a better cause. Theystraggled up as she spoke, took their places and began, and before theyhad played many minutes the most exciting event of the day occurred, asit always did somewhere about this hour. In the midst of the gem oftheir collection was heard the rattle of wheels and the crack of whips,and through the rapturous shouts of the juvenile guests, the twovenerable, rickety stages dashed up with a lumbering flourish, and aspasmodic pretense of excitement, calculated to deceive only thefeeblest mind.
At the end of the gallery they checked themselves in their mad career,the drivers making strenuous efforts to restrain the impetuosity of thefour steeds whose harness rattled against their ribs with an unpleasantbony sound. Half a dozen waiters rushed forward, the doors were flungopen, the steps let down with a bang, the band brayed insanely, and thepassengers alighted.—"One, two, three, four," counted Olivia Ferrol,mechanically, as the first vehicle unburdened itself. And then, as thedoor of the second was opened: "One—only one: and a very young one,too. Dear me! Poor girl!"
This exclamation might naturally have fallen from any quick-sighted andsympathetic person. The solitary passenger of the second stage stoodamong the crowd, hesitating, and plainly overwhelmed with timorousness.Three waiters were wrestling with an ugly shawl, a dreadful shiningvalise, and a painted wooden trunk, such as is seen in country stores.In their enthusiastic desire to dispose creditably of these articlesthey temporarily forgot the owner, who, after one desperate, timidglance at them, looked round her in vain for succor. She was verypretty and very young and very ill-dressed—her costume a bucolictravesty on prevailing modes. She did not know where to go, and no onethought of showing her; the loungers about the office stared at her;she began to turn pale with embarrassment and timidity. Olivia Ferrolleft her chair and crossed the gallery. She spoke to a servant alittle sharply:
"Why not show the young lady into the parlor?" she said.
The girl heard, and looked at her helplessly, but with gratitude. Thewaiter darted forward with hospitable rapture.
"Dis yeah's de way, miss," he said, "right inter de 'ception-room.Foller me, ma'am."
Olivia returned to her seat. People were regarding her with curiosity,but she was entirely oblivious of the fact.
"That is one of them," she was saying, mentally. "That is one of them,and a very interesting type it is, too."
To render the peculiarities of this young woman clearer, it may be wellto reveal here something of her past life and surroundings. Her fatherhad been a literary man, her mother an illustrator of books andmagazine articles. From her earliest childhood she had been surroundedby men and women of artistic or literary occupations, some who weredrudges, some who were geniuses, some who balanced between the twoextremes, and she had unconsciously learned the tricks of the trade.She had been used to people who continually had their eyes open toanything peculiar and interesting in human nature, who were enrapturedby the discovery of new types of men, women, and emotions. Since shehad been left an orphan she had lived with her brother, who had beenreporter, editor, contributor, critic, one after the other, until atlast he had established a very enviable reputation as a brilliant,practical young fellow, who knew his business, and had a fine careeropen to him. So it was natural that, having become interested in thegeneral friendly fashion of dissecting and studying every scrap ofhuman nature within reach, she had followed more illustrious examples,and had become very critical upon the subject of "types" herself.During her sojourn at Oakvale she had studied the North Carolinianmountaineer "type" with the enthusiasm of an amateur. She had talkedto the women in sunbonnets who brought fruit to the hotel, and sat onthe steps and floor of the galleries awaiting the advent of customerswith a composure only to be equaled by the calmness of the noblesavage; she had walked and driven over the mountain roads, stopping atwayside houses and entering into conversation with the owners until shehad become comparatively well known, even in the space of a fortnight,and she had taken notes for her brother until she had roused him tosharing her own interest in her discoveries.
"I am sure you will find a great deal of material here," she wrote tohim. "You see how I have fallen a victim to that dreadful habit oflooking at everything in the light of material. A man is no longer aman—he is 'material'; sorrow is not sorrow, joy is not joy—it is'material.' There is something rather ghoulish in it. I wonder ifanatomists look at people's bodies as we do at their minds, and if tothem every one is a 'subject.' At present I am interested in a speciesof girl I have discovered. Sometimes she belongs to the betterclass—the farmers, who have a great deal of land and who are the richmen of the community,—sometimes she lives in a log cabin with a motherwho smokes and chews tobacco, but in either case she is a surprise anda mystery. She is always pretty, she is occasionally beautiful, and inspite of her house, her people, her education or want of it, she isinstinctively a refined and delicately susceptible young person. Shehas always been to some common school, where she has writtencompositions on sentimental or touching subjects, and when she belongsto the better class she takes a fashion magazine and tries to make herdresses like those of the ladies in the colored plates, and, I may add,frequently fails. I could write a volume about her, but I wont. Whenyour vacation arrives, come and see for yourself." It was of thisclass Miss Ferrol was thinking when she said: "That is one of them, anda very interesting type it is, too."
When she went in to the dining-roo