In the mean time,
set things to rights.
"The curtains are looped up, and the shutters folded back into the
wall, and the rooms are sprinkled with tea-leaves, which are lightly
swept up, and the dust left behind, where it ought to be, on the
carpet,--that's all the use there is of a carpet, except you have got
corns. And then the Venetians are let down to darken the rooms, and
the windows are kept closed to keep out the flies, the dust, and the
heat, and the flowers brought in and placed in the stands. And there
is a beautiful temperature in the parlour, for it is the same air that
was there a fortnight before. It is so hot, when the young ladies come
down to breakfast, they can't eat, so they take nothing but a plate of
buck-wheat cakes, and another of hot buttered rolls, a dozen of
oysters, a pot of preserves, a cup of honey, and a few ears of Indian
corn. They can't abide meat, it's too solid and heavy. It's so horrid
warm it's impossible they can have an appetite, and even that little
trifle makes them feel dyspeptic. They'll starve soon; what can be the
matter? A glass of cool ginger pop, with ice, would be refreshing, and
soda water is still better, it is too early for wine, and at any rate
it's heating, besides being unscriptural.
"Well, the men look at their watches, and say they are in a hurry, and
must be off for their counting-houses like wink, so they bolt.
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