Page:The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson (1924).pdf/28

10 On one occasion he wrote that he should see her at Northampton, being with the Governor as aide-de-camp, "which will," he hopes, "not be less agreeable to her than to him." A courtly pair, with not one glimmer of their transgressing Emily's future escape from all their wellknown landmarks of thought and divination.

The society of their village was also stately, and they later played their part therein, being often sought, or, as the time-worn little notes still show, "Solicited, to an evening party" by this or that prominent household, as "Self and Lady," a form shared by even as pompous a host as Judge Delano, of Northampton. In 1821 Lucretia also stated, "There have been some splendid parties this Winter in town—one at the Strong's to which there were more than fifty invited." The lace shawls and India shawls, the gold-banded china and English blue, are mute witness to the social importance and obligation of the family, who did their part, whether any enjoyment was wrested from their conscientious performance or not, in keeping up the county standards of entertainment and hospitality.

It is impossible to derive Emily from either her stately father or her fluttering little mother, always timorous, always anxious. Treasured among the daughter's most cherished papers, was found the little yellow certificate of her mother's exemplary conduct as a girl at school:

The aunts seem to have been the Greek chorus of the family, dire in their fatal appearances. Her Aunt