POLYGLOT HOUSEKEEPER. 



337 



though frequently she had declined 

 altogether, we were told, the feli- 

 city of lodging ladies in the hotel. 

 She explained to me, in a remark- 

 ably intelligent mixture of Mexi- 

 can-Spanish, English, French, Ger- 

 man, Indian, Scotch, and anything 

 else that came into her head, leav- 

 ing it to me to unravel them, her 

 reasons for this occasional indispo- 

 sition on her part to receive guests 

 of her own sex. " Mexican ladies 

 mit ther airs muy desagradables. 

 Von Senora, wife > of a general, come 

 here, sehr cross, sulky. No canny, 

 I tink, head. Gone, loco. Order 

 comida for she and de general, hus- 

 band. Muy buena it was ; I help 

 cook it. Todos good ; when she see 

 it, no taste it, take it all todos up, 

 and trose it all at cook's cabeza ! 

 There ! wat you tink o' dat ? The 

 Senora got no comida, nein, soup, 

 frijoles, chickens, todos she trowed 

 in cook's cam, mit her zwei hands ! 

 And dere was dinner, disshes, and 

 todos on floor. De general, hus- 

 band, poor man, he blind, hear 

 noise, came to mich, say, 'Muy 

 achlecht, me can't help.' He a'most 

 cry, pobrecito ! lose him dinner too. 

 Hoot awa, a bonny Senora dat, 

 unadame." But, if her languages 

 were wonderful, so were her gesti- 

 culations. Impressive indeed they 

 were. While her voice was pitched 

 an unusual height to suit and make 

 up for the Babel of languages in 

 which she was constrained to utter 

 her sentiments, she spoke with 

 great rapidity. Suddenly she 

 I'h.-mgi'd the scene from Mexico to 

 Hanover, where it appeared she 

 'had been housekeeper to a gentle- 

 inan who was an acquaintance of 

 our late kind Duke of Cambriil-v. 

 "The English Herzog Cambridge," 

 she exclaimed, " wat von good 

 prince dat ! Come von day, all 

 out, tons, madamc, come to mich, 

 Cambridge did." (I think the good 

 frau did not intend any disrespect 

 to the royal duke by thus familiarly 



speaking of him, but, not knowing 

 what herzog was in English, when 

 she did not use the German word, 

 she was quite at fault.) " Well, 

 Cambridge say, tell de family I 

 comes, eh 1 Ha, ha ! he laugh, sehr. 

 Good-nature prince, oui, madame, 

 ja, always smile and laugh. O ! 

 how unlike cross lady mit general 

 husband." She then proceeded to 

 tell some wonderful stories about 

 the herzog, and cows and fresh 

 milk, and a party, and a country- 

 house, hacienda, but the extraordi- 

 nary patchwork of languages defied 

 all comprehension. Patchwork ! 

 nay, it was more like silks of mixed 

 colours : German, shot with French, 

 and that shot over again with Eng- 

 lish, and crossed with Spanish. 

 She seized my hands every now 

 and then, as if about to give me a 

 lift to assist the understanding, but 

 I was in a hopeless state. There 

 was a whirl of haciendas and Hano- 

 verians, and generals, and chickens, 

 and herzogs, and cows, &c., in one's 

 brain ; a human windmill, a living 

 telegraph, making signs at the rate 

 of a million a minute before me, 

 and all was confusion and mental 

 darkness. She continued, however, 

 fast and furious ; and the chief 

 actor in this scene was evidently 

 perfectly satisfied : she was exceed- 

 ingly diverted, and intensely in- 

 terested by her own tale. Now she 

 seemed on the point of cheering 

 herself with hearty brnvos, and 

 now she successfully melted herself 

 almost to tears, speaking, in the 

 most pathetic accents, with clasped 

 and rung hands. We, not having 

 the most remote notion at this 

 juncture what particular form of 

 human grief she was representing, 

 were at a loss to console her. As 

 .-tin msekeeper she was very superior 

 indeed, ana most kind and obliging 

 did we find her. She kept the 

 hotel in admirable ordcr,and seeim-i I 

 to bo running from morning till 

 night. If any of the Criadas or 



