Miss Sarah Jack of Spanish Town | Page 6

as you call them in the honourable House of Assembly? Why are not
the best men in the island to be found there, as the best men in England
are to be found in the British House of Commons? A pack, indeed! My
father was proud of a seat in that house, and I remember the day,
Maurice Cumming, when your father also thought it no shame to
represent his own parish. If men like you, who have a stake in the
country, will not go there, of course the house is filled with men who
have no stake. If they are a pack, it is you who send them there;--you,
and others like you."
All had its effect, though at the moment Maurice would shrug his
shoulders and turn away his head from the torrent of the lady's

discourse. But Miss Jack, though she was not greatly liked, was greatly
respected. Maurice would not own that she convinced him; but at last
he did allow his name to be put up as candidate for his own parish, and
in due time he became a member of the honourable House of Assembly
in Jamaica.
This honour entails on the holder of it the necessity of living at or
within reach of Spanish Town for some ten weeks towards the chose of
every year. Now on the whole face of the uninhabited globe there is
perhaps no spot more dull to look at, more Lethean in its aspect, more
corpse-like or more cadaverous than Spanish Town. It is the
head-quarters of the government, the seat of the legislature, the
residence of the governor;--but nevertheless it is, as it were, a city of
the very dead.
Here, as we have said before, lived Miss Jack in a large forlorn
ghost-like house in which her father and all her family had lived before
her. And as a matter of course Maurice Cumming when he came up to
attend to his duties as a member of the legislature took up his abode
with her.
Now at the time of which we are specially speaking he had completed
the first of these annual visits. He had already benefited his country by
sitting out one session of the colonial parliament, and had satisfied
himself that he did no other good than that of keeping away some
person more objectionable than himself. He was however prepared to
repeat this self-sacrifice in a spirit of patriotism for which he received a
very meagre meed of eulogy from Miss Jack, and an amount of
self-applause which was not much more extensive.
"Down at Mount Pleasant I can do something," he would say over and
over again, "but what good can any man do up here?"
"You can do your duty," Miss Jack would answer, "as others did before
you when the colony was made to prosper." And then they would run
off into a long discussion about free labour and protective duties. But at
the present moment Maurice Cumming had another vexation on his
mind over and above that arising from his wasted hours at Spanish
Town, and his fruitless labours at Mount Pleasant. He was in love, and
was not altogether satisfied with the conduct of his lady-love.
Miss Jack had other nephews besides Maurice Cumming, and nieces
also, of whom Marian Leslie was one. The family of the Leslies lived

up near Newcastle--in the mountains, that is, which stand over
Kingston- -at a distance of some eighteen miles from Kingston, but in a
climate as different from that of the town as the climate of Naples is
from that of Berlin. In Kingston the heat is all but intolerable
throughout the year, by day and by night, in the house and out of it. In
the mountains round Newcastle, some four thousand feet above the sea,
it is merely warm during the day, and cool enough at night to make a
blanket desirable.
It is pleasant enough living up amongst those green mountains. There
are no roads there for wheeled carriages, nor are there carriages with or
without wheels. All journeys are made on horseback. Every visit paid
from house to house is performed in this manner. Ladies young and old
live before dinner in their riding-habits. The hospitality is free, easy,
and unembarrassed. The scenery is magnificent. The tropical foliage is
wild and luxuriant beyond measure. There may be enjoyed all that a
southern climate has to offer of enjoyment, without the penalties which
such enjoyments usually entail.
Mrs. Leslie was a half-sister of Miss Jack, and Miss Jack had been a
half-sister also of Mrs. Cumming; but Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. Cumming
had in no way been related. And it had so happened that up to the
period of his legislative efforts Maurice Cumming had seen nothing