And the first thing I did," added Mrs. Guele, "was to fall
downstairs."
At length we got out of the house, and some of us into the trap,
when--judgment of Heaven!--here came Mr. Guele from his vineyard.
So another quarter of an hour went by; till at length, at our
earnest pleading, we set forth again in earnest, Fanny and I white-
faced and silent, but the Jews still smiling. The heart fails me.
There was yet another stoppage! And we drove at last into
Calistoga past two in the afternoon, Fanny and I having breakfasted
at six in the morning, eight mortal hours before. We were a pallid
couple; but still the Jews were smiling.
So ended our excursion with the village usurers; and, now that it
was done, we had no more idea of the nature of the business, nor of
the part we had been playing in it, than the child unborn. That
all the people we had met were the slaves of Kelmar, though in
various degrees of servitude; that we ourselves had been sent up
the mountain in the interests of none but Kelmar; that the money we
laid out, dollar by dollar, cent by cent, and through the hands of
various intermediaries, should all hop ultimately into Kelmar's
till;--these were facts that we only grew to recognize in the
course of time and by the accumulation of evidence. At length all
doubt was quieted, when one of the kettle-holders confessed.
Pages:
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61