, &c.
"Ah," said Carmen sadly, "it is true, then, all this that I have heard.
It is true that what they have told me,--that you have given up the
great party,--that your voice is not longer heard in the old--what you
call this--eh--the old ISSUES?"
"If any one has told you that, Miss De Haro," responded the Senator
sharply, "he has spoken foolishly. You have been misinformed. May I ask
who--"
"Ah!" said Carmen, "I know not! It is in the air! I am a stranger.
Perhaps I am deceived. But it is of all. I say to them, When shall I
hear him speak? I go day after day to the Capitol, I watch him,--the
great Emancipator,--but it is of business, eh?--it is the claim of that
one, it is the tax, eh? it is the impost, it is the post-office, but it
is the great speech of human rights--never, NEVER. I say, 'How arrives
all this?' And some say, and shake their heads, 'never again he speaks.'
He is what you call 'played--yes, it is so, eh?--played out.' I know it
not,--it is a word from Bos-ton, perhaps? They say he has--eh, I speak
not the English well--the party he has shaken, 'shook,'--yes,--he has
the party 'shaken,' eh? It is right,--it is the language of Bos-ton,
eh?"
"Permit me to say, Miss De Haro," returned the Senator, rising with some
asperity, "that you seem to have been unfortunate in your selection of
acquaintances, and still more so in your ideas of the derivations of the
English tongue.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180