The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-09-08
CAUGHT BY AN HEIRESS.
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY.

BY JUSTIN M'CARTHY.- -..-r
Il There was quite. q pleasant littl
$ thrill of excitement on board the Nil
,sissippi steamer Columbia, bound frOI
n New Orleans to st. Louis, rs she II
/ at the quay of the former city (do the
: call it q quay at New Orleans, q
a levee. or D cTcUnsse, or what?) jul
i before starting. on her voyage. III
i passengers were nearly all on boar
the seemingly interminable processs
rolling in casks of sugar and bales (
cotton by vociferous, awkward ne
9 groes had really come to an end; bu
o the captain still stood on the quay
wharf. leyee, crevdsse, or whateve
!, it was, and the specified hour for de
parture had long passed away: Th
sun had gone d0wn-it was In the Lei
ter end Of April, before the fiec
heats had set in TO make Canal Stree
, q solitude and Carroliton q howlinI
wilderness and the crew and the POI
ters did their work BY the light Of tn
misunderstanding little furnaces, o
braziers, filled with blazing pine-wood
which were fixed at the steamer
bows. Among the impatient passen
gers the rumor was that the steame
was only waiting now to take on b0art
| q young heiress, of immense wealth
and social dignity, who was gOint
up somewhere north, and thence t.
Europe. -, ,.,,- s,.,...f-l
Some few Of the passengers protsss
4 IL a.. lx-oxxv ol1 al tho m ffor
Their accounts, of course, did no
agree in many particulars; but they
all generally bore out one broad con
clusion. The young heiress had only
recently become enriched. The deatf
of a distant relative, who had amass
ed huge fortune in South America
had made her, quite Unexpectedly, an
heiress. She had been brought up ir
q New Orleans convent, her motheI
being dead. Her father was travelling
with her. Except as her father ht
was quite poor man, ruined in the
war. Was she pretty? everybody
asked. Nobody knew. Several on
! board were acquainted, more or less
with the father; not one ever profess
ed to have seen the daughter.
While general and keen anxiety
was felt to see the heiress, the ladies'
were much more eager on the subject
than the gentlemen. Men are very
seldom curious about q woman whom
they have not seen; women are just
the reverse. The men on board the
| Columbia who felt or professed the
greatest desire to see the expected
heiress were Colonel Sharpe, the Hon.
Captain Decides (Of England), and
Phil Pembroke.
These three ought to to be clearly
described. Colonel Sharpe was a
small, dark haired man, with eyes
that cleaned like jewels. He was
handsomely, perhaps rather flOridly,
dressed; had an emerald in his shirt,
and wore elegant glazed boots, small
and dainty enough to have peeped
beneath a petticoat. should not
care to have played billiards or euchre
with Colonel Sharpe, who was almost
always playing one or the other. 1t
is doubtful whether the military au-
thorities at Washington could have
furnished any explanation as to how
MIR. Sharpe came by his title Of Colo
mel; and L don't suppose Jefferson
Davis knew any thing more about the
matter than General Grant. The
maacers of Colonel Sharpe to the
ladies on board were eiaborately polite
and chivalrous, with an OstentatiOus
dash of tenderness in them. When
he took off his hat and bowed to q
lady, there was an air Of sentimental
confidence about the motion which
seemed to hint that it was an act Of
homage paid to her, and her alone.
Colonel Sharpe went up and down
the Mississippi very often, and played
cards immensely all the way, and
drank many, many rry-cobblers
and much Champagne ana brandy,
and he was ready to offer you a wager
on any assertion whatever.
The Hon. Capt. Decides (whOse regi-
ment was now stationed in TorOntO)
was an English younger son. He
was handsome, forid man, OF thirty
five, with a neat brown mustache and
brown whiskers and shaven chin, and
hair lavishly oiled and carefully part
ed down the middle, He was special.
Iy remarkable for his unalterable COM
posure and impenetrable self-posses-
sion. Nothing on earth or sea could
disturb him, or shake his calm faith
in his own superiority and that OF his
class to all humanity outside. He
was poor, as BELTS a younger son, and,
like a true British aristOcrat, he cared
not a farthing who knew it. He
wanted to marry a woman with
money; and he even frankly acknOWl-
edged that, given the money, he
should not be very particular about
the beauty or intellect Of the woman.
Phil Pembroke was q handsome
Young American, who had gone cred
itably, not perhaps very splendidly,
through his university course, and had
not vet quite found out what to do
with himself in life. He was won
derfully slow young American in u.at
way; for he was twenty-five years old,
and yet had hardly begun the world.
He had very little money. His father
and mother were dead. He had had
forced upon him, through family in-
fluence, a counsulship in one OF the
British possessions, and not liking the
utter absence of real work, he had &C
tually flung up the appointment, de-
claring himself disgusted with office
seeking, and vowiDg that he would
live by his own brains and exertions,
or not live at all. He was manly
Young fellow, with a dash of the ro-
mantle in him; and he.had still a poet
ic reverence for woman, even
though she wore high heels and as.
sumed the Grecian bend-which l
take to be the severest test of mans
devotion to woman ever yet devised
by fashion.
Colonel Sharpe thought something
could be made out of the heiress or the
father, somehow. Captain Decides
Thought he might have try for the
girl and her "tin.u Phil Pembroke
was anxious to see what the mysteri-
Gus young lady might be like. In the
weary hours before the steamers de-
tparture these three had been thrown
together a good deal. Colonel Sharpe
had won two bets of the Britisher,
and PLAYED cards with him, but found
that in the latter manly sport the
Britisher could hold his own.
At last three carriages rattle down
to the wharf. Several huge trunks
and boxes and valises are taken on
board, Then comes an elderly gentle
man handing in two ladies, both
young, apparently; then smart
French damsei, evidently a iady's-
maid; and then a colored man carry
ing a little dog in his arms. The
ladies have their wells down, and no.
body can make anything of them.
The whole party passes in, and pres
emily disappears, absorbed into state,
rooms. At last The plank, or "stage, "
is hauled in, the gun is fired, and the
steamer begins slowly to make her