daughters were beside
her, both wonderfully improved in beauty, though Genifrede still
preserved the superiority there. She sat a little apart from her mother
and sister netting. Moyse was at her feet, in order to obtain the
benefit of an occasional gleam from the eyes which were cast down upon
her work. His idolatry of her was no surprise to any who looked upon
her in her beauty, now animated and exalted by the love which she had
avowed, and which was sanctioned by her father and her family. The
sisters were dressed nearly alike, though Aimee knew well that it would
have been politic to have avoided thus bringing herself into immediate
comparison with her sister. But Aimee cared not what was thought of her
face, form, or dress. Isaac had always been satisfied with them. She
had confided in Genifrede's taste when they first assumed their rank;
and it was least troublesome to do so still. If Isaac should wish it
otherwise when he should return from France, she would do as he desired.
Meantime, they were dressed in all essentials exactly alike, from the
pattern of the Madras handkerchief they wore (according to universal
custom) on their heads, to the cut of the French-kid shoe. The dress
was far from resembling the European fashion of the time. No tight
lacing; no casing in whalebone--nothing like a hoop. A chemisette of
the finest cambric appeared within the bodice, and covered the bosom.
The short full sleeves were also of white cambric. The bodice, and
short full skirt, were of deep yellow India silk; and the waist was
confined with a broad band of violet-coloured velvet, gaily embroidered.
The only difference in the dress of the sisters was in their ornaments.
Aimee wore heavy ear-drops, and a large necklace and bracelets of
amethyst; while Genifrede wore, suspended from a throat-band of velvet,
embroidered like that which bound her waist, a massive plain gold
crucifix, lately given her by Moyse. Her ear-rings were hoops of plain
gold, and her bracelets again of embroidered velvet, clasped with plain
gold. In her might be seen, and in her was seen by the Europeans who
attended the levee of that day, what the negro face and form may be when
seen in their native climate, unhardened by degradation, undebased by
ignorance, unspoiled by oppression--all peculiarities of feature
softened under the refining influence of mind, and all peculiarities of
expression called out in their beauty by the free exercise of n