Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

128 THE PIAZZA TALES
to please ; which is doubly meritorious, as at once
Christian and Chesterfieldian.
Captain Delano observed with interest that while the
complexion of the mulatto was hybrid, his physiognomy
was European—
classically so.
'
Don Benito,' whispered he, *
I am glad to see this
usher-of-the-golden-rod of yours ; the sight refutes an
ugly remark once made to me by a Barbados planter ;
that when a mulatto has a regular European face, look
steward here
out for him he is a devil. But ; see, your
has features more regular than King George's of England ;
and yet there he nods, and bows, and smiles ;
a king,
indeed— the king of kind hearts and polite fellows.
What a pleasant voice he has, too !
1
*
He has, senor.'
But tell me, has he not, so far as you have known
him, always proved a '
good, worthy fellow ? said Captain
Delano, pausing, while with a final genuflection the steward
disappeared into the cabin '
; come, for the reason just
mentioned, I am curious to know.'
'
Francesco is a good man,' a sort of sluggishly re-
sponded Don Benito, like a phlegmatic appreciator, who
would neither find fault nor natter.
1
Ah, I thought so. For it were strange, indeed, and
not very creditable to us white-skins, if a little of our
blood mixed with the African's should, far from improving
the latter's quality, have the sad effect of
pouring vitriolic acid into black broth ; improving the
hue, perhaps, but not the wholesomeness.'
'
Doubtless, doubtless, sefior, but '— glancing at Babo—
'
not to speak of negroes, your planter's remark I have
heard applied to the Spanish and Indian intermixtures
in our provinces. But I know nothing about the matter/
he listlessly added.
And here they entered the cabin.
'