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Lady Baltimore-Part41_Owen Wister(1860-1938)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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last word that I heard the bridegroom say. While we all stood silently

watching them as they drove away from the tall iron gate, the



mocking-bird on the staircase broke into melodious ripples of song.

XXIII: Poor Aunt Carola!



And now here goes my language back into the small-clothes that it wore at

the beginning of all, when I told you something of that colonial society,



the Selected Salic Scions, dear to the heart of my Aunt. It were beyond

my compass to approach this august body of men and women with the respect



that is its due, did I attire myself in that modern garment which, in the

phrase of the vulgar, is denoted pants.



You will scarce have forgot, I must suppose, the importance set by my

Aunt Carola upon the establishing of the Scions in new territories,



wherever such persons as were both qualified by their descent and in

themselves worthy, should be found; and you will remember that I was



bidden by her to look in South Carolina for members of the Bombo

connection which she was inclined to suspect existed in that state. My



neglect to make this inquiry for my kind Aunt now smote me sharply when

all seemed too late. John Mayrant had spoken of Kill-devil Bombo, the



very personage through whom lay Aunt Carola's claim to kingly lineage,

and I had let John Mayrant go away upon his honeymoon without ever



questioning him upon this subject. As I looked back upon the ease with

which I might have settled the matter, and forward to my return empty-



handed to the generousrelative to whom I owed this agreeable experience

of travel, I felt guilty indeed. I wrote a letter to follow John Mayrant



into whateverretreat of bliss he had betaken himself to, and I begged

him earnestly to write me at his early convenience all that he might know



of Bombos in South Carolina. Consequently, I was able, on reaching home,

to meet Aunt Carola with some sort of countenance, and to assure her that



I expected presently to be furnished with authentic and valuable

particulars.



I now learned that the Selected Salic Scions had greatly increased in

numbers during my short absence. It appeared that the origin of the whole



movement had sprung from a needy but ingenious youth in some

manufacturing town of New England. This lad had a cousin, who had amassed



from nothing a noble fortune by inventing one day a speedy and convenient

fashion of opening beer bottles; and this cousin's achievement had set



him to looking about him. He soon discovered that in our great republic

everywhere there were living hundreds and thousands of men and women who



were utterly unaware that they were descended from kings. Borrowing a

little money to float him, he set up The American Almanach de Gotha and



began (for the minimum sum of fifty dollars a pedigree) to reveal to

these eager people the chain of links that connected them with royalty.



Thus, in a period of time the brevity of which is incredible, this young

man passed from complete indigence to a wife and four automobiles, or an



automobile and four wives--I don't remember which he had the four of.

There was so much royal blood about that it had spilled into several



rival organizations, each bitterly warring with the other; but my Aunt

assured me that her society was the only one that any respectable person



belonged to.

I am minded to announce a rule of discreet conduct: Never read aloud any



letter that you have not first read to yourself. Had I observed this

rule--but listen:--



It so happened that Aunt Carola was at luncheon with us when the postman

brought John Mayrant's answer to my inquiry, and at the sight of his



handwriting I thoughtlessly exclaimed to my Aunt that here at last we had

all there was to be known concerning the Bombos in South Carolina; with



this I tore open the missive and embarked upon a reading of it for the

edification of all present. I pass over the beginning of John's



communication, because it was merely the observations of a man upon his

honeymoon, and was confined to laudatory accounts of scenery and weather,



and the beauty of all life when once one saw it with his eyes truly

opened.



"No Bombos ever came to Carolina," he now continued, "that I know of, or

that Aunt Josephine knows of, which is more to the point. Aunt Josephine



has copied me a passage from the writings of William Byrd, Esq., of

Westover, Virginia, in which mention is made, not of the family, but of a






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