Lemorne Versus Huell
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Elizabeth Drew Stoddard >> Lemorne Versus Huell
Prepared by:
John M. Krafft
email: krafftjm@muohio.edu
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 the bonnet before me with a nod,
and deposited it again in the box, which made a part of the luggage
for Newport.
On Sunday morning we arrived in Newport, and went to a quiet
hotel in the town. James was with us, but Mrs. Roll was left in
Bond Street, in charge of the household. Monday was spent in an
endeavor to make an arrangement regarding the hire of a coach and
coachman. Several livery-stable keepers were in attendance, but
nothing was settled, till I suggested that Aunt Eliza should send
for her own carriage. James was sent back the next day, and
returned on Thursday with coach, horses, and William her coachman.
That matter being finished, and the trunks being unpacked, she
decided to take her first bath in the sea, expecting me to support
her through the trying ordeal of the surf. As we were returning
from the beach we met a carriage containing a number of persons
with a family resemblance.
When Aunt Eliza saw them she angrily exclaimed, "Am I to see
those Uxbridges every day?"
Of the Uxbridges this much I knew--that the two brothers Uxbridge
were the lawyers of her opponents in the lawsuit which had existed
three or four years. I had never felt any interest in it, though I
knew that it was concerning a tract of ground in the city which had
belonged to my grandfather, and which had, since his day, become
very valuable. Litigation was a habit of the Huell family. So the
sight of the Uxbridge family did not agitate me as it did Aunt
Eliza.
"The sly, methodical dogs! but I shall beat Lemorne yet!"
"How will you amuse yourself then, aunt?"
"I'll adopt some boys to inherit what I shall save from his
clutches."
The bath fatigued her so she remained in her room for the rest
of the day; but she kept me busy with a hundred trifles. I wrote
for her, computed interest, studied out bills of fare, till four
o'clock came, and with it a fog. Nevertheless I must ride on the
Avenue, and the carriage was ordered.
"Wear your silk, Margaret; it will just about last your visit
through--the fog will use it up."
"I am glad of it," I answered.
"You will ride every day. Wear the bonnet I bought for you also."
"Certainly; but won't that go quicker in the fog than the dress?"
"Maybe; but wear it."
I rode every day afterward, from four to six, in the black silk,
the mantilla, and the white straw. When Aunt Eliza went she was so
on the alert for the Uxbridge family carriage that she could have
had little enjoyment of the ride. Rocks never were a passion with
her, she said, nor promontories, chasms, or sand. She came to
Newport to be washed with salt-water; when she had washed up to the
doctor's prescription she should leave, as ignorant of the peculiar
pleasures of Newport as when she arrived. She had no fancy for its
conglomerate societies, its literary cottages, its parvenue suits
of rooms, its saloon habits, and its bathing herds.
I considered the rides a part of the contract of what was
expected in my two months' performance. I did not dream that I was
enjoying them, any more than I supposed myself to be enjoying a
sea-bath while pulling Aunt Eliza to and fro in the surf. Nothing
in the life around me stirred me, nothing in nature attracted me.
I liked the fog; somehow it seemed to emanate from me instead of
rolling up from the ocean, and to represent me. Whether I went
alone or not, the coachman was ordered to drive a certain round;
after that I could extend the ride in whatever direction I pleased,
but I always said, "Anywhere, William." One afternoon, which
happened to be a bright one, I was riding on the road which led to
the glen, when I heard the screaming of a flock of geese which were
waddling across the path in front of the horses. I started, for I
was asleep probably, and, looking forward, saw the Uxbridge
carriage, filled with ladies and children, coming toward me; and by
it rode a gentleman on horseback. His horse was rearing among the
hissing geese, but neither horse nor geese appeared to engage him;
his eyes were fixed upon me. The horse swerved so near that its
long mane almost brushed against me. By an irresistible impulse I
laid my ungloved hand upon it, but did not look at the rider.
Carriage and horseman passed on, and William resumed his pace. A
vague idea took possession of me that I had seen the horseman
before on my various drives. I had a vision of a man galloping on
a black horse out of the fog, and into it again. I was very sure,
however, that I had never seen him on so pleasant a day as this!
William did not bring his horses to time; it was after six when I
went into Aunt Eliza's parlor, and found her impatient for her tea
and toast. She was crosser than the occasion warranted; but I
understood it when she gave me the outlines of a letter she desired
me to write to her lawyer in New York. Something had turned up, he
had written her; the Uxbridges believed that they had ferreted out
what would go against her. I told her that I had met the Uxbridge
carriage.
"One of them is in New York; how else could they be giving me
trouble just now?"
"There was a gentleman on horseback beside the carriage."
"Did he look mean and cunning?"
"He did not wear his legal beaver up, I think; but he rode a fine
horse and sat it well."
"A lawyer on horseback should, like the beggar of the adage, ride
to the devil."
"Your business now is the 'Lemorne?'"
"You know it is."
"I did not know but that you had found something besides to
litigate."
"It must have been Edward Uxbridge that you saw. He is the brain
of the firm."
"You expect Mr. Van Horn?"
"Oh, he must come; I can not be writing letters."
We had been in Newport two weeks when Mr. Van Horn, Aunt Eliza's
lawyer, came. He said that he would see Mr. Edward Uxbridge.
Between them they might delay a term, which he thought would be
best. "Would Miss Huell ever be ready for a compromise?" he
jestingly asked.
"Are you suspicious?" she inquired.
"No; but the Uxbridge chaps are clever."
He dined with us; and at four o'clock Aunt Eliza graciously asked
him to take a seat in the carriage with me, making some excuse for
not going herself.
"Hullo!" said Mr. Van Horn when we had reached the country road;
"there's Uxbridge now." And he waved his hand to him.
It was indeed the black horse and the same rider that I had met.
He reined up beside us, and shook hands with Mr. Van Horn.
"We are required to answer this new complaint?" said Mr. Van
Horn.
Mr. Uxbridge nodded.
"And after that the judgment?"
Mr. Uxbridge laughed.
"I wish that certain gore of land had been sunk instead of being
mapped in 1835."
"The surveyor did his business well enough, I am sure."
They talked together in a low voice for a few minutes, and then
Mr. Van Horn leaned back in his seat again. "Allow me," he said,
"to introduce you, Uxbridge, to Miss Margaret Huell, Miss Huell's
niece. Huell *vs.* Brown, you know," he added, in an explanatory
tone; for I was Huell *vs.* Brown's daughter.
"Oh!" said Mr. Uxbridge bowing, and looking at me gravely. I
looked at him also; he was a pale, stern-looking man, and forty
years old certainly. I derived the impression at once that he had
a domineering disposition, perhaps from the way in which he
controlled his horse.
"Nice beast that," said Mr. Van Horn.
"Yes," he answered, laying his hand on its mane, so that the
action brought immediately to my mind the recollection that I had
done so too. I would not meet his eye again, however.
"How long shall you remain, Uxbridge?"
"I don't know. You are not interested in the lawsuit, Miss
Huell?" he said, putting on his hat.
"Not in the least; nothing of mine is involved."
"We'll gain it for your portion yet, Miss Margaret," said Mr. Van
Horn, nodding to Mr. Uxbridge, and bidding William drive on. He
returned the next day, and we settled into the routine of hotel
life. A few mornings after, she sent me to a matinee, which was
given by some of the Opera people, who were in Newport
strengthening the larynx with applications of brine. When the
concert was half over, and the audience were making the usual hum
and stir, I saw Mr. Uxbridge against a pillar, with his hands
incased in pearl-colored gloves, and holding a shiny hat. He turned
half away when he caught my eye, and then darted toward me.
"You have not been much more interested in the music than you are
in the lawsuit," he said, seating himself beside me.
"The *tutoyer* of the Italian voice is agreeable, however."
"It makes one dreamy."
"A child."
"Yes, a child; not a man nor a woman."
"I teach music. I can not dream over 'one, two, three.'"
"*You*--a music teacher!"
"For six years."
I was aware that he looked at me from head to foot, and I picked
at the lace on my invariable black silk; but what did it matter
whether I owned that I was a genteel pauper, representing my aunt's
position for two months, or not?
"Where?"
"In Waterbury."
"Waterbury differs from Newport."
"I suppose so."
"You suppose!"
A young gentleman sauntered by us, and Mr. Uxbridge called to him
to look up the Misses Uxbridge, his nieces, on the other side of
the hall.
"Paterfamilias Uxbridge has left his brood in my charge," he
said. "I try to do my duty," and he held out a twisted pearl-
colored glove, which he had pulled off while talking. What white
nervous fingers he had! I thought they might pinch like steel.
"You suppose," he repeated.
"I do not look at Newport."
"Have you observed Waterbury?"
"I observe what is in my sphere."
"Oh!"
He was silent then. The second part of the concert began; but I
could not compose myself to appreciation. Either the music or I
grew chaotic. So many tumultuous sounds I heard--of hope, doubt,
inquiry, melancholy, and desire; or did I feel the emotions which
these words express? Or was there magnetism stealing into me from
the quiet man beside me? He left me with a bow before the concert
was over, and I saw him making his way out of the hall when it was
finished.
I had been sent in the carriage, of course; but several carriages
were in advance of it before the walk, and I waited there for
William to drive up. When he did so, I saw by the oscillatory
motion of his head, though his arms and whiphand were perfectly
correct, that he was inebriated. It was his first occasion of
meeting fellow-coachmen in full dress, and the occasion had proved
too much for him. My hand, however, was on the coach door, when I
heard Mr. Uxbridge say, at my elbow,
"It is not safe for you."
"Oh, Sir, it is in the programme that I ride home from the
concert." And I prepared to step in.
"I shall sit on the box, then."
"But your nieces?"
"They are walking home, squired by a younger knight."
Aunt Eliza would say, I thought, "Needs must when a lawyer
drives"; and I concluded to allow him to have his way, telling him
that he was taking a great deal of trouble. He thought it would be
less if he were allowed to sit inside; both ways were unsafe.
Nothing happened. William drove well from habit; but James was
obliged to assist him to dismount. Mr. Uxbridge waited a moment at
the door, and so there was quite a little sensation, which spread
its ripples till Aunt Eliza was reached. She sent for William,
whose only excuse was "dampness."
"Uxbridge knew my carriage, of course," she said, with a
complacent voice.
"He knew me," I replied.
"You do not look like the Huells."
"I look precisely like the young woman to whom he was introduced
by Mr. Van Horn."
"Oh ho!"
"He thought it unsafe for me to come alone under William's
charge."
"Ah ha!"
No more was said on the subject of his coming home with me. Aunt
Eliza had several fits of musing in the course of the evening while
I read aloud to her, which had no connection with the subject of
the book. As I put it down she said that it would be well for me to
go to church the next day. I acquiesced, but remarked that my piety
would not require the carriage, and that I preferred to walk.
Besides, it would be well for William and James to attend divine
service. She could not spare James, and thought William had better
clean the harness, by way of penance.
The morning proved to be warm and sunny. I donned a muslin dress
of home manufacture and my own bonnet, and started for church. I
had walked but a few paces when the consciousness of being *free*
and *alone* struck me. I halted, looked about me, and concluded
that I would not go to church, but walk into the fields. I had no
knowledge of the whereabouts of the fields; but I walked straight
forward, and after a while came upon some barren fields, cropping
with coarse rocks, along which ran a narrow road. I turned into it,
and soon saw beyond the rough coast the blue ring of the ocean--
vast, silent, and splendid in the sunshine. I found a seat on the
ruins of an old stone-wall, among some tangled bushes and briers.
There being no Aunt Eliza to pull through the surf, and no animated
bathers near, I discovered the beauty of the sea, and that I loved
it.
Presently I heard the steps of a horse, and, to my astonishment,
Mr. Uxbridge rode past. I was glad he did not know me. I watched
him as he rode slowly down the road, deep in thought. He let drop
the bridle, and the horse stopped, as if accustomed to the
circumstance, and pawed the ground gently, or yawed his neck for
pastime. Mr. Uxbridge folded his arms and raised his head to look
seaward. It seemed to me as if he were about to address the jury.
I had dropped so entirely from my observance of the landscape that
I jumped when he resumed the bridle and turned his horse to come
back. I slipped from my seat to look among the bushes, determined
that he should not recognize me; but my attempt was a failure--he
did not ride by the second time.
"Miss Huell!" And he jumped from his saddle, slipping his arm
through the bridle.
"I am a runaway. What do you think of the Fugitive Slave Bill?"
"I approve of returning property to its owners."
"The sea must have been God's temple first, instead of the
groves."
"I believe the Saurians were an Orthodox tribe."
"Did you stop yonder to ponder the sea?"
"I was pondering 'Lemorne vs. Huell.'"
He looked at me earnestly, and then gave a tug at the bridle, for
his steed was inclined to make a crude repast from the bushes.
"How was it that I did not detect you at once?" he continued.
"My apparel is Waterbury apparel."
"Ah!"
We walked up the road slowly till we came to the end of it; then
I stopped for him to understand that I thought it time for him to
leave me. He sprang into the saddle.
"Give us good-by!" he said, bringing his horse close to me.
"We are not on equal terms; I feel too humble afoot to salute
you."
"Put your foot on the stirrup then."
A leaf stuck in the horse's forelock, and I pulled it off and
waved it in token of farewell. A powerful light shot into his eyes
when he saw my hand close on the leaf.
"May I come and see you?" he asked, abruptly. "I will."
"I shall say neither 'No' or 'Yes.'"
He rode on at a quick pace, and I walked homeward forgetting the
sense of liberty I had started with, and proceeded straightway to
Aunt Eliza.
"I have not been to church, aunt, but to walk beyond the town;
it was not so nominated in the bond, but I went. The taste of
freedom was so pleasant that I warn you there is danger of my
'striking.' When will you have done with Newport?"
"I am pleased with Newport now," she answered, with a curious
intonation. "I like it."
"I do also."
Her keen eyes sparkled.
"Did you ever like anything when you were with me before?"
"Never. I will tell you why I like it: because I have met, and
shall probably meet, Mr. Uxbridge. I saw him to-day. He asked
permission to visit me."
"Let him come."
"He will come."
But we did not see him either at the hotel or when we went
abroad. Aunt Eliza rode with me each afternoon, and each morning we
went to the beach. She engaged me every moment when at home, and I
faithfully performed all my tasks. I clapped to the door on self-
investigation--locked it against any analysis or reasoning upon any
circumstance connected with Mr. Uxbridge. The only piece of
treachery to my code that I was guilty of was the putting of the
leaf which I brought home on Sunday between the leaves of that poem
whose motto is,
"Mariana in the moated grange."
On Saturday morning, nearly a week after I saw him on my walk,
Aunt Eliza proposed that we should go to Turo Street on a shopping
excursion; she wanted a cap, and various articles besides. As we
went into a large shop I saw Mr. Uxbridge at a counter buying
gloves; her quick eye caught sight of him, and she edged away,
saying she would look at some goods on the other side; I might wait
where I was. As he turned to go out he saw me and stopped.
"I have been in New York since I saw you," he said. "Mr. Lemorne
sent for me."
"There is my aunt," I said.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"I shall not go away soon again," he remarked. "I missed Newport
greatly."
I made some foolish reply, and kept my eyes on Aunt Eliza, who
dawdled unaccountably. He appeared amused, and after a little talk
went away.
Aunt Eliza's purchase was a rose-colored moire antique, which she
said was to be made for me; for Mrs. Bliss, one of our hotel
acquaintances, had offered to chaperon me to the great ball which
would come off in a few days, and she had accepted the offer for
me.
"There will be no chance for you to take a walk instead," she
finished with.
"I can not dance, you know."
"But you will be *there*."
I was sent to a dress-maker of Mrs. Bliss's recommending; but I
ordered the dress to be made after my own design, long plain
sleeves, and high plain corsage, and requested that it should not
be sent home till the evening of the ball. Before it came off Mr.
Uxbridge called, and was graciously received by Aunt Eliza, who
could be gracious to all except her relatives. I could not but
perceive, however, that they watched each other in spite of their
lively conversation. To me he was deferential, but went over the
ground of our acquaintance as if it had been the most natural thing
in the world. But for my life-long habit of never calling in
question the behavior of those I came in contact with, and of never
expecting any thing different from that I received, I might have
wondered over his visit. Every person's individuality was sacred to
me, from the fact, perhaps, that my own individuality had never
been respected by any person with whom I had any relation--not even
by my own mother.
After Mr. Uxbridge went, I asked Aunt Eliza if she thought he
looked mean and cunning? She laughed, and replied that she was
bound to think that Mr. Lemorne's lawyer could not look otherwise.
When, on the night of the ball, I presented myself in the rose-
colored moire antique for her inspection, she raised her eyebrows,
but said nothing about it.
"I need not be careful of it, I suppose, aunt?"
"Spill as much wine and ice-cream on it as you like."
In the dressing-room Mrs. Bliss surveyed me.
"I think I like this mass of rose-color," she said. "Your hair
comes out in contrast so brilliantly. Why, you have not a single
ornament on!"
"It is so easy to dress without."
This was all the conversation we had together during the evening,
except when she introduced some acquaintance to fulfill her
matronizing duties. As I was no dancer I was left alone most of the
time, and amused myself by gliding from window to window along the
wall, that it might not be observed that I was a fixed flower.
Still I suffered the annoyance of being stared at by wandering
squads of young gentlemen, the "curled darlings" of the ball-room.
I borrowed Mrs. Bliss's fan in one of her visits for a protection.
With that, and the embrasure of a remote window where I finally
stationed myself, I hoped to escape further notice. The music of
the celebrated band which played between the dances recalled the
chorus of spirits which charmed Faust:
"And the fluttering
Ribbons of drapery
Cover the plains,
Cover the bowers,
Where lovers,
Deep in thought,
Give themselves for life."
The voice of Mrs. Bliss broke its spell.
"I bring an old friend, Miss Huell, and he tells me an
acquaintance of yours."
It was Mr. Uxbridge.
"I had no thought of meeting you, Miss Huell."
And he coolly took the seat beside me in the window, leaving to
Mrs. Bliss the alternative of standing or of going away; she chose
the latter.
"I saw you as soon as I came in," he said, "gliding from window
to window, like a vessel hugging the shore in a storm."
"With colors at half-mast; I have no dancing partner."
"How many have observed you?"
"Several young gentlemen."
"Moths."
"Oh no, butterflies."
"They must keep away now."
"Are you Rhadamanthus?"
"And Charon, too. I would have you row in the same boat with me."
"Now you are fishing."
"Won't you compliment me. Did I ever look better?"
His evening costume *was* becoming, but he looked pale, and weary,
and disturbed. But if we were engaged for a tournament, as his
behavior indicated, I must do my best at telling. So I told him
that he never looked better, and asked him how I looked. He would
look at me presently, he said, and decide. Mrs. Bliss skimmed by us
with nods and smiles; as she vanished our eyes followed her, and we
talked vaguely on various matters, sounding ourselves and each
other. When a furious redowa set in which cut our conversation into
rhythm he pushed up the window and said, "Look out."