e his long face in with an expression of sympathy that
almost made me laugh in spite of my pain, draw it out again, between
the narrowest possible opening, as if he were anxious to admit as
little air as he could; while another would come in bodily, and after
looking at me curiously and inquisitively, as he would eye a horse or
nigger he had some thoughts of making a bid for, would help to carpet
my room, with the result perhaps of his meditations, and saying,
gravely, "Air you better, Aunty Seacole, now? Isn't there a something
we can du for you, ma'am?" would as gravely give place to another and
another yet, until I was almost inclined to throw something at them,
or call them bad names, like the Scotch king does the ghosts in the
play.[A] But, fortunately, the attack was a very mild one, and by the
next day all danger had gone by, although I still felt weak and
exhausted.

After a few weeks, the first force of the cholera was spent, and
although it lingered with us, as though loath to leave so fine a
resting-place, for some months, it no longer gave us much alarm; and
before long, life went on as briskly and selfishly as ever with the
Cruces survivors, and the terrible past was conveniently forgotten.
Perhaps it is so everywhere; but the haste with which the Cruces
people buried their memory seemed indecent. Old houses found new
masters; the mules new drivers; the great Spaniard chose another
pretty woman, and had a grand, poor, dirty wedding, and was married by
the same lazy black priest who had buried his wife, dead a few months
back; and very likely they would all have hastened as quickly to
forget their doctress, had circumstances permitted them: but every now
and then one of them sickened and died of the old complaint; and the
reputation I had established founded for me a considerable practice.
The Americans in the place gladly retained me as their medical
attendant, and in one way or other gave me plenty to do; but, in
addition to this, I determined to follow my original scheme of keeping
an hotel in Cruces.

Right opposite my brother's Independent Hotel there was a place to let
which it was considered I could adapt to my purpose. It was a mere
tumble-down hut, with wattled sides, and a rotten thatched roof,
containing two rooms, one small enough to serve as a bedroom. For this
charming residence--very openly situated, and well ventilated--twenty
pounds a month was considered a fair and by no means exorbitant