It was not pleasant to hear them, but I have heard
quite as unpleasant music both before and since.
Mr. Nosnibor took me through several spacious rooms till we reached a
boudoir where were his wife and daughters, of whom I had heard from the
interpreter. Mrs. Nosnibor was about forty years old, and still
handsome, but she had grown very stout: her daughters were in the prime
of youth and exquisitely beautiful. I gave the preference almost at once
to the younger, whose name was Arowhena; for the elder sister was
haughty, while the younger had a very winning manner. Mrs. Nosnibor
received me with the perfection of courtesy, so that I must have indeed
been shy and nervous if I had not at once felt welcome. Scarcely was the
ceremony of my introduction well completed before a servant announced
that dinner was ready in the next room. I was exceedingly hungry, and
the dinner was beyond all praise. Can the reader wonder that I began to
consider myself in excellent quarters? "That man embezzle money?"
thought I to myself; "impossible."
But I noticed that my host was uneasy during the whole meal, and that he
ate nothing but a little bread and milk; towards the end of dinner there
came a tall lean man with a black beard, to whom Mr.
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