Autobiography of Mark Twain III by Mark Twain

Author:Mark Twain [Twain, Mark]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

As I have said, I reached Stormfield on the 7th of April. Things were buzzing, so to speak. Ashcroft came up a day or two later. Meantime I had seen not happened to see anything of Horace, & was too busy to look into his case. When Ashcroft arrived he paid Horace to date, & I signed the check. He paid him at the old rate—a confession, apparently, that Horace had not been “discharged,” & that Ashcroft knew it.

Yes, things were buzzing. Clara wanted Miss Lyon discharged & sent out of the house at once. I said her first month on the March 15 contract would be compted on the 15th of the current month & I would then give her a month’s notice & let her retire to her own house.

Clara wanted Miss Lyon’s trunks, in the attic, searched for stolen goods. This astonished me! Did she think Miss Lyon that kind of a thief? Yes, she thought she was; & believed she had more than merely plausible reasons for it.

On the 12th or 13 I went down to attend Clara’s concert on the 13th. I went to the concert with the Rogerses. No Ashcrofts along. A month earlier, it had been planned that the Ashcrofts & I would go there together; but things were changed, now; that pair wanted none of Clara’s music, & Clara was not yearning for any Ashcrofts.

On the 14th I was still in New York I suppose, ^(a part of the day),^ because I had a talk with Ashcroft which I think must have occurred about that time. He told me Clara’s feeling against Miss Lyon had reached such a pass that Miss Lyon believed Clara was going to have her trunks searched; also that she was going to have her arrested—& so Miss Lyon was in a state of pitiable humiliation & distress.

Then Ashcroft cried.

I said—

“Arrest her? Nonsense. On what ground?”

“Because she has a suspicion that—”

“Well, that is nonsense, too. Clara would apply to a lawyer, & the lawyer would not allow her to proceed upon a mere suspicion.”

Miss Lyon’s fright was a self-accusation, but I didn’t know it, & was not suspecting it. Clara’s suspicions were well grounded, but I thought they were merely grounded upon resentment & dislike.

On the 15th I was at home again, & sent & received this a̭ letter from Clara, about a housekeeper to take Miss Lyon’s place. Miss Lyon had stipulated in her contract of a month earlier that she was to be Social Secretary only, & have nothing to do with the housekeeping. The Miss Hindhaugh mentioned was a lady who was highly educated but h & had been rich but had lost her money three years before, & from that date had been serving as housekeeper & secretary in the family of a Columbia-University professor at $50 30 a month. That is, for nine months of the year. The family went away each summer, but left her behind, without salary. She was very willing

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