wise and virtuous, to have before them a great future. Here come
home from the convent school two coloured young ladies, probably
pretty, possibly lovely, certainly gentle, modest, and well-dressed
according to the fashions of Paris or New York; and here comes the
unmistakable Englishman, tall, fair, close-shaven, arm-in-arm with
another man, whose more delicate features, more sallow complexion,
and little moustache mark him as some Frenchman or Spaniard of old
family. Both are dressed as if they were going to walk up Pall Mall
or the Rue de Rivoli; for 'go-to-meeting clothes' are somewhat too
much de rigueur here; a shooting-jacket and wide-awake betrays the
newly-landed Englishman. Both take off their hats with a grand air
to a lady in a carriage; for they are very fine gentlemen indeed,
and intend to remain such: and well that is for the civilisation of
the island; for it is from such men as these, and from their
families, that the good manners for which West Indians are, or ought
to be, famous, have permeated down, slowly but surely, through all
classes of society save the very lowest.

The straight and level street, swarming with dogs, vultures,
chickens, and goats, passes now out of the old into the newer part
of the city; and the type of the houses changes at once. Some are
mere wooden sheds of one or two rooms, comfortable enough in that
climate, where a sleeping-place is all that is needed--if the
occupiers would but keep them clean. Other houses, wooden too,
belong to well-to-do folk. Over high walls you catch sight of
jalousies and verandahs, inside which must be most delightful
darkness and coolness. Indeed, one cannot fancy more pleasant nests
than some of the little gaily-painted wooden houses, standing on
stilts to let the air under the floors, and all embowered in trees
and flowers, which line the roads in the suburbs; and which are