. American lands and letters. s a very live and wakeful one ; Missj\litford says, he is like the son of a peer ! andit is certain that he had with ladies a most engag-ing deference and a low, caressing manner ofspeech which were very captivating. His knowl-edge of little convenances was all-embracing andnever at fault; how a hostess should carry herself,how she should throw the reins of talk—now here,now there; how she should cover the awkwardfaux-pas of some inapt person ; nay, the very sum-mons to a servant or the gracious way of strewinga pretty dust-fall of pleading and concealing wordsove
. American lands and letters. s a very live and wakeful one ; Missj\litford says, he is like the son of a peer ! andit is certain that he had with ladies a most engag-ing deference and a low, caressing manner ofspeech which were very captivating. His knowl-edge of little convenances was all-embracing andnever at fault; how a hostess should carry herself,how she should throw the reins of talk—now here,now there; how she should cover the awkwardfaux-pas of some inapt person ; nay, the very sum-mons to a servant or the gracious way of strewinga pretty dust-fall of pleading and concealing wordsover a crash of dishes, or of scandal—all this heferreted and fathomed by quick social instinct. io8 AMERICAN LANDS <S^ LETTERS. And this instinct filtered tlirough his publishedlines in what matter-of-fact people would call apretty constant over-estimate of the exterior em-bellishments of life. My Lady Ravelgolds tie orher brodequin, or the crest upon her carriage door,or her smile of conge to an unwelcome suitor, <y^. ^^l-t^-t 1/ Fragment of a Letter from N. P. Willis. would engage from him more serious attention thanany discourse from her on poetry or on ethics. It was not until 1836 that Willis returned toAmerica, bringing a charming and estimable Eng-lish lady as a bride.* The next year saw him * His marriage relations were most happy; this was alsosignally true of his second marriage (to the adopted daughterand niece of Hon. Joseph Grinnell) in 1840. UNDER A BRIDGE. 109 planted in a delightful country house in TiogaCounty^ in the midst of that lovely region ofmeadows, vales, and wooded hills, where the Sus-quehanna sweeps northward over the border ofNew York to gather in its tribute from the Owegoand other mountain streams. From this homewere written in those days his Letters from Undera Bridge; nor did he ever write more winningperiods. That old word-quest (born in him) andsusceptibility to lingual harmonies caught some-thing new from the bird-notes and the babbli
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