Home as Found: Sequel to "Homeward Bound" - Softcover

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ood morrow, coz. Good morrow, sweet Hero."

SHAKSPEARE.

When Mr. Effingham determined to return home, he sent orders to his

agent to prepare his town-house in New-York for his reception, intending

to pass a month or two in it, then to repair to Washington for a few weeks,

at the close of its season, and to visit his country residence when the spring

should fairly open. Accordingly, Eve now found herself at the head of one

of the largest establishments, in the largest American town, within an hour

after she had landed from the ship. Fortunately for her, however, her fa-

ther was too just to consider a wife, or a daughter, a mere upper servant,

and he rightly judged that a liberal portion of his income should be assigned

to the procuring of that higher quality of domestic service, which can alone

relieve the mistress of a household from a burthen so heavy to be borne. Un-

like so many of those around him, who would spend on a single pretending

and comfortless entertainment, in which the ostentatious folly of one con-

tended with the ostentatious folly of another a sum that, properly directed,

would introduce order and system into a family for a twelvemonth, by com-

manding the time and knowledge of those whose study they had been, and

3 JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

who would be willing to devote themselves to such objects, and then permit

their wives and daughters to return to the drudgery to which the sex seems

doomed in this country, he first bethought him of the wants of social life

before he aspired to its parade. A man of the world, Mr. Effingham pos-

sessed the requisite knowledge, and a man of justice, the requisite fairness,

to permit those who depended on him so much for their happiness, to share

equitably in the good things that Providence had so liberally bestowed on

himself. In other words, he made two people comfortable, by paying a gen-

erous price for a housekeeper; his daughter, in the first place, by releasing

her from cares that, necessarily, formed no more a part of her duties than it

would be a part of her duty to sweep the pavement before the door; and, in

the next place, a very respectable woman who was glad to obtain so good a

home on so easy terms. To this simple and just expedient, Eve was indebted

for being at the head of one of the quietest, most truly elegant, and best, or-

dered establishments in America, with no other demands on her time than

that which was necessary to issue a few orders in the morning, and to exam-

ine a few accounts once a week.

One of the first and the most acceptable of the visits that Eve received, was

from her cousin, Grace Van Cortlandt, who was in the country at the mo-

ment of her arrival, but who hurried back to town to meet her old school-

fellow and kinswoman, the instant she heard of her having landed. Eve Eff-

ingham and Grace Van Cortlandt were sisters' children, and had been born

within a month of each other. As the latter was without father or mother,

most of their time had been passed together, until the former was taken

abroad, when a separation unavoidably ensued. Mr. Effingham ardently de-

sired, and had actually designed, to take his niece with him to Europe, but

her paternal grandfather, who was still living, objected his years and affec-

tion, and the scheme was reluctantly abandoned. This grandfather was now

dead, and Grace had been left with a very ample fortune, almost entirely the

mistress of her own movements.

The moment of the meeting between these two warm-hearted

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