



Produced by John M. Krafft





LEMORNE VERSUS HUELL

Elizabeth Drew Stoddard

Harper's New Monthly Magazine 26 (1863): 537-43.


The two months I spent at Newport with Aunt Eliza Huell, who had been
ordered to the sea-side for the benefit of her health, were the
months that created all that is dramatic in my destiny. My aunt was
troublesome, for she was not only out of health, but in a lawsuit. She
wrote to me, for we lived apart, asking me to accompany her--not because
she was fond of me, or wished to give me pleasure, but because I
was useful in various ways. Mother insisted upon my accepting her
invitation, not because she loved her late husband's sister, but because
she thought it wise to cotton to her in every particular, for Aunt Eliza
was rich, and we--two lone women--were poor.

I gave my music-pupils a longer and earlier vacation than usual, took a
week to arrange my wardrobe--for I made my own dresses--and then started
for New York, with the five dollars which Aunt Eliza had sent for my
fare thither. I arrived at her house in Bond Street at 7 A.M., and found
her man James in conversation with the milkman. He informed me that
Miss Huell was very bad, and that the housekeeper was still in bed. I
supposed that Aunt Eliza was in bed also, but I had hardly entered the
house when I heard her bell ring as she only could ring it--with an
impatient jerk.

"She wants hot milk," said James, "and the man has just come."

I laid my bonnet down, and went to the kitchen. Saluting the cook, who
was an old acquaintance, and who told me that the "divil" had been in
the range that morning, I took a pan, into which I poured some milk, and
held it over the gaslight till it was hot; then I carried it up to Aunt
Eliza.

"Here is your milk, Aunt Eliza. You have sent for me to help you, and I
begin with the earliest opportunity."

"I looked for you an hour ago. Ring the bell."

I rang it.

"Your mother is well, I suppose. She would have sent you, though, had
she been sick in bed."

"She has done so. She thinks better of my coming than I do."

The housekeeper, Mrs. Roll, came in, and Aunt Eliza politely requested
her to have breakfast for her niece as soon as possible.

"I do not go down of mornings yet," said Aunt Eliza, "but Mrs. Roll
presides. See that the coffee is good, Roll."

"It is good generally, Miss Huell."

"You see that Margaret brought me my milk."

"Ahem!" said Mrs. Roll, marching out.

At the beginning of each visit to Aunt Eliza I was in the habit of
dwelling on the contrast between her way of living and ours. We lived
from "hand to mouth." Every thing about her wore a hereditary air; for
she lived in my grandfather's house, and it was the same as in his day.
If I was at home when these contrasts occurred to me I should have felt
angry; as it was, I felt them as in a dream--the china, the silver, the
old furniture, and the excellent fare soothed me.

In the middle of the day Aunt Eliza came down stairs, and after she had
received a visit from her doctor, decided to go to Newport on Saturday.
It was Wednesday; and I could, if I chose, make any addition to my
wardrobe. I had none to make, I informed her. What were my dresses?--had
I a black silk? she asked. I had no black silk, and thought one would be
unnecessary for hot weather.

"Who ever heard of a girl of twenty-four having no black silk! You have
slimsy muslins, I dare say?"

"Yes."

"And you like them?"

"For present wear."

That afternoon she sent Mrs. Roll out, who returned with a splendid
heavy silk for me, which Aunt Eliza said should be made before Saturday,
and it was. I went to a fashionable dress-maker of her recommending, and
on Friday it came home, beautifully made and trimmed with real lace.

"Even the Pushers could find no fault with this," said Aunt Eliza,
turning over the sleeves and smoothing the lace. Somehow she smuggled
into the house a white straw-bonnet, with white roses; also a handsome
mantilla. She held