Litchfield enquirer., 1878-11-14
Eunice was rather sileut aDd subdued.

, Eunice was rather silent and subdued Mir Duncan did his best in the way of talk, but was too much frightened andtoo much absorb | ed by my new duties to be capable even of understanding him. Aunt Ennice takes sugar
 but no cream in her coffee, and he takes cream but no sugar and while I was trying to en- grave these two facts upon my mind, how could attend to what he was saying? He is lawyer, and has been travelling in Europe with, Uncle Jack for the last six months, and his conversation naturally turned upon his 1 travels He must think me perfect dunce, for after had located Tyr0l in Russia, and confounded the Mosque of St. Sophia with St. Peters, and expressed my conviction that Venice was situated upon the Golden Horn, he turned his attention to Aunt Eunice. She, poor lady, was evidently in mortal fright | lest he should attack her on the same subject, and, I suppose by way of turning the conver~ l sation, she broke in with:
 Did Isunderstan6 Marion to say that your name is Duncan !. That iss a very familiar name to me There are many Duncans in our place. Our butcher is named Duncan"
 glanced at him in dismay, but not muscle of his face moved, not even an eyelash quiver- ed as he replied, gravely:
 ''Some connection of mine, no doubt. We have relatives in every rank of life." Obviously Mr. Duncan is a gentleman, but, all the same, it was a great relief to me to hear him say, as we arose from the table, for which I gave the signal rather precipitately, that he had business in New York which would detain him the greater part of the day, and that he must ask me to excuse him if he did not return much before dinner time Ex- cuse Land could have fallen on his neck at the prospect of nine hours of relief from my duties as hostess. ..s-
 Aunt Eunice sat lost in silent pondering for some time after Mir. Duncan had gone Sud denly, just as was about to speak, she burst out: -a
 "A but cher! Did he say that Duncan the
 butcher was an uncle or a cousin of his?
 Really, my dear, am not proud but butch CT does seem rather low down. The Nortons always held their heads pretty high, and what your mamma can be thinking of don't know. Was it his uncle or his cousin, Marion?' ''Neither, Aunt Eunice, " I said. "Proba- ply he is no relation at all to Duncan the butcher He only said it to spare your feel ings."
 ''To spare my feelings?" said Aunt Eunice, looking up in surprise. "Why, he never could have thought that Duncan the butcher is a connection of mine And how could it spare my feelings to acknowledge his relationship to his own uncle? Mo- no, my dear; that won't do. After all, l am glad he adcourage enough to tell the truth; though if you come to spare feelings lie would have been much more likely to do that. But 1 honor man who isn't ashamed of his relations-though butch CT does seem 0ery low down."
 l could not stay to combat Aunt Eunice's suspicious, for Bridget was imperatively de- manding my presence in the kitchen, and I was obliged to make my escape to give orders for luncheon and dinner-0r rather to meekly adopt Br1dget's views upon the subject Then I went up again to Aunt Eunice, and spent the rest of the day with her. I talked with her, took her out to walk, listened to her old time stories, until it was time to rush up stairs and dress for dinner, and fly down again to see that the table was properly set, and to brighten it up little with few late flowers and scarlet berries. was little more at my ease by this time, andCould listen to what Mir. Duncan said, and even reply after fashion The only thing that distressed me was Aunt Eunice's extraordinary behavior. 1 am really afraid that Mr. Ducan will think her insane, such an utterly inexplicable series of mods and winks she did keep up. 1 remarked that the meat was tough, only to be rebuked by volley of warning glances. 1 asked Mir. Duncan ii the carving knife was sharp enough. and she coughed me into silence. But when asked him if he liked to carve, she very near ly shook her head off in her efforts to hush me- Of course MT. Duncan saw it all, and was do Dy lG dS duu ulOT6 ul- verted, or so judged by the spasmodic man. ner in which he buried as much of hls face as he well could in his napkin, and broke into sudden and uncalled-for fits of coughing, which left him red in the face and ''teary round the lashes''
 The evening passed off better than I expect ed, with music and talk. Then Mir. Duncan spoke of 8 volume of poems which had recent ly come out, and finding that had not seen it, repeated one or two of them for me and then It was time to separate for the night. Aunt Eunice beckoned me into her room mysteri- ously as l went up stairs, after q consultation with Bridget on the subject of breakfast.
 My dear," said Aunt Eunice, solennly, ''I know you don't mean any harm by it, and young things are always thoughtess but if were you, 1 wouldn't talk so much about butchers before Mr. Duncan, Depend upon it, he won't like it,
 But, Aunt Eunce" cried, in amazement and horror. 'l never mentioned butchers CT once. What on earth should I talk about butchers for 7"
 'That's just it," said Aunt Funice calmly ''why should you? But to ask him if his knife is sharp, and if he is fond of cutting up meat why, it was just the same as asking him if he inherits his fathers tastes, and no man would like that, under the circumstances.
 "Why, Aunt Eunice -" began, but she in- terrupted me.
 ''There, there, my dear, that will do. I rather wonder at your family, must say but, after all he is very clever and intelligent young man-qute wonderfully so indeed, for c 6utcher'S s0ae"
 I would have exclaimed, expostulated, de- nied the allegation, but I.had no time, for, with nasty kiss and an exhortation to run : away to bed and keep my roses fresh, Aunt Eunice closed her door upon me.
 October 10.-I am getting used to my new position, think. Thanks to Bridget, have no trouble about ordering meals. My only du- ties in that line are decorating the table, and concocting nice little dishes for dessert etc., in which.I succeed pretty well, thanks to mammals carefully kept recipe-b0ok. To be sure, the lemon pies which rashly undertook were much harder than orthodox lemon pies should be, owing to my ignorance of the prop CT amount of beating to be bestowed upon them. But just as Aunt Eunice was plunging me into the lower depths of despair by her cemmiseration, MT. Duncan suggested that though they might be rather failure as pies they were unexceptionable if regarded as car amels, and thus turned the whole thing into joke. He is so kind and thoughtful I be- lieve it is because he appreciates the difficulties of my position that he spends the whole day in this city, returning only in time for the six o'clock dinner. What should do with both him and Aunt Eunice upon my hands for an entire day? As it is, I am afraid that she is bent upon deepening the conviction of my ut- ter idiocy which 1 succeeded in nimpressing up- on his mind the first day. Last night, for in- stance. During the day we had somehow stumbled upon natural history in the course of our talk, and said something about turtles eggs.
 Turtles eggs9" cried Aunt Eunice with an air of lively interest. 'tDo turtles lay eggs? Why, I never knew that before! But how do they hatch thema ? Do they sit upon them ?"
 The notion of turtle sitting upon it's eggs nearly convulsed me, but controlled myself and explained the mode which they adopt, as we'll as could. Aunt Eunice appeared quite satisfied at the time. but begin to perceive that a subject is never done with when you think it is, where Aunt Eunice is concerned. Hardly were we seated at the dinner table when she broke forth:
 ''Mr. Duncan, what idea do you think this ridior1f0lrc ahiId hoc sDfa har