Home as Found | Page 2

to concede,
that it is very far behind most polished nations in various essentials,
and chiefly, that it is lamentably in arrears to its own avowed principles.
Perhaps this truth will be found to be the predominant thought,
throughout the pages of "Home As Found."
Home as Found.
Chapter I.
"Good 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 father 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. Unlike so many of
those around him, who would spend on a single pretending and
comfortless entertainment, in which the ostentatious folly of one
contended with the ostentatious folly of another a sum that, properly
directed, would introduce order and system into a family for a
twelvemonth, by commanding the time and knowledge of those whose
study they had been, and 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 possessed 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 generous
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, ordered 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 examine 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 moment 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 Effingham 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 desired, and had actually designed, to
take his niece with him to Europe, but her paternal grandfather, who
was still living, objected his years and affection, 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 and
sincerely attached young women, was one of great interest and anxiety
to both. They retained for each other the tenderest love, though the
years that had separated them had given rise to so many new
impressions and habits that they did not prepare themselves for the
interview without apprehension. This interview took place about a
week after Eve was established in Hudson Square, and at an hour
earlier than was usual for the reception of visits. Hearing a carriage stop
before the door, and the bell ring, our heroine stole a glance from

behind a curtain and recognized her cousin as she alighted.
"_Qu'avez-vous, ma chere_?" demanded Mademoiselle Viefville,
observing that her _élève_ trembled and grew pale.
"It is my cousin, Miss Van Cortlandt--she whom I loved as a sister-- we
now meet for the first time in so many years!"
"_Bien_--_c'est une