July 20, 1909 Tuesday

July 20 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Charles T. Lark, had decided he needed Isabel Lyon’s Signature on a lease agreement which would legalize the Sept. 1 date for her to leave. This time accompanied by Clara Clemens, he returned to the Lobster Pot to secure Lyon’s signature. Clara wrote an account of the meeting:

CLARA’S NARRATIVE.

[in Clara L.. Clemens’s hand:|

On Thursday the 20th of July Mr. Lark came out to Redding with the intention of presenting a lease to Mrs. Ashcroft which would permit her and her mother to remain in the house ’till the first of September; they had asked for this permission in the interview on the preceding Saturday at which my sister was present.

Mr, Lark was obliged to wait while Mr. Nickerson prepared the lease which required nearly two hours and then desiring a witness Mr. Lark asked me to accompany him to Mrs. Ashcroft’s house. Mr. Lounsbury also went with us but on arriving there we were first asked by Wells, their man, to wait a moment and were then met by Mrs. Lyon instead of Mrs. Ashcroft.

Mrs. Lyon came onto the porch by the kitchen door with the announcement that Miss Lyon was ill in bed. Never having known Mrs. Lyon except as a calm reserved woman it was a surprise to see her attack Mr. Lark in great excitement and anger. Her face was flushed and she gesticulated nervously as she addressed him in a loud tone of voice:

“You took an unfair advantage of us last Saturday and did not keep your word for you promised us to go away and bring back the deed in two or three days but instead of that you came back with it the same day and therefore it is not legal. My daughter does not even know what she signed and we are both of us crazy: you intimidated her into giving her signature by threatening to arrest her if she didn’t—and you never would have dared to do such a thing if there had been a man in the house”—by this time she was fairly screaming and although Mr, Lark attempted to interrupt her and deny her statement that he had threatened her daughter with arrest on the previous Saturday she would not listen to him but continued to talk in a stream of words expressing resentment and rage.

Mrs. Lyon had not once looked at me, nevertheless at this point I turned to her and said—

“Mrs. Lyon, I don’t see why it should ever have been necessary for us to ask your daughter to return this property, why wasn’t she eager to do it of her own accord?”

It was evident now by her reply that up to this moment she had merely been reciting a part which had been taught her either by her daughter or her daughter’s attorney for when she answered my question it was with a burst of genuine feeling that could no longer be suppressed by legal advice. “Do you think I want to stay here another day, do you think I want this horrible land or house or anything remotely connected with the Clemens family? No—no—no, We're packing to get out as fast as we can” —

“Very good then Mrs. Lyon—I interrupted—that is all that your daughter signed last Saturday, she merely returned what you do not want yourselves & what we have no use for as property but what we do want because of the circumstances which make your daughter’s presence so unpleasant.” To this Miss Lyon made no direct reply but half sobbing exclaimed “if you had any pity any pity”

“I have great pity for you Mrs. Lyon I answered but none whatever for your daugther—”

She wailed on “I have never had one happy day in this house not one” and here Mr. Lark ventured an unfortunate small remark which threw Mrs Lyon into hysterics, He said: “I know how unhappy you must have been for your daughter treated you so horribly.”

“My daughter treated me horribly? she screamed rushing up to Mr. Lark, how dare you say such a thing? She has always been good to me, how dare you, how dare you?

Mr. Lark and I tried to appease her and persuaded her to sit down on a bench at the back of the porch; the others then having withdrawn a little, Mrs. Lyon still weeping began to talk with me somewhat more quietly. “How could you accuse her of such things after her seven years’ of devotion to your family, she lived for you all and worked so hard in your interest’’—

“That was what we believed I said and we appreciated it and for that reason my father gave her this place & lent her money for the repairs—”

“She worked so very hard, Mrs. Lyon continued—looking after the servants and the household”

“And Mrs. Lyon that is why we offered to get a housekeeper which she refused—or two raise her salary which she refused, We tried to make her feel that she was one of us and when she did not wish to accept a higher salary for her increased services I told her to at least buy herself dresses now and then which she was willing to do. But I can’t talk about all this with you Mrs. Lyon, there are so many things that are impossible to say to you about your own daughter.”

“But what is it all anyway asked Mrs. Lyon, we haven’t any money we haven’t a bit—”

“You haven’t any—no” I replied

“Nor has Isabel”—she said

“No I suppose not’’—I replied

“Well then who do you think has it, Mr. Ashcroft?” she asked.

“It does not matter who has it Mrs. Lyon for it is not the money we want, it’s merely this house and land and that you have relinquished.” She was still sobbing and moaning all the time she talked.“Why did your father give power of attorney to my daughter and then deny it afterwards?” “He denied, I replied, having seen the extraordinary paper by which Miss Lyon could possess herself “of everything and ruin us if she chose.”

“But she didn’t use it” Mrs. Lyon said.

“No, Mrs. Lyon she hadn’t yet and I do not believe that your daughter did all these things by herself. Of course she was influenced by it was a terrible thing for her to be influenced when she held that powerful and trusted position.”

“Yes—yes—Mrs. Lyon muttered as if dazed by it all, and then repeated the remark she had made earlier about her faithful devotion to us.

“I used to think so, I answered until I heard from various sides in N.Y. that she was telling lies about me and betraying my confidences—she changed very much in the past two years,”

“Yes she has changed, Mrs. Lyon admitted, but she has been very ill for some time; and then why did you not answer the letter she sent your father asking whether it would be all right for her to go to England instead of waiting ’till she got over there and then shaming her by attacking her property and letting it all come out in the newspapers?”

“My father never received any such letter,[“] I answered [“] and besides Mr. Stanchfield telephoned to Mr. Ashcroft in N.Y. and told him not to go to England as he need him & Mrs. Ashcroft here. The whole thing got into the papers through the Bridgeport notary and not through us for certainly we did not care for this newspaper talk”—then feeling somewhat irritated that I should be filling the position of the accused called upon to account for my actions I broke out rather vehemently and said

“Mrs. Lyon your daughter is guilty—guilty”

“Guilty of what?” she asked at these words she rose with a gesture that made me draw back but rushing past me she appealed to Mr. Lounsbury & Wells who were standing a few steps away from the porch out on the grass, repeating over & over again at the top of her lungs

“Do you hear what Miss Clemens says? She says my daughter has been guilty of stealing—of stealing.” Her screams were heard up at my father’s house some distance away. [inserted in SLC’s hand: (Half a mile, or nearly that.)]

I regretted my remark and once more we all had to make an effort to quiet her begging her to think no more of any of it but she was half crazy with unhappiness and reiterated many times that she had never been in such a position before and could not live through the disgrace of it. Finally she turned to me & said: “Why didn’t you come and settle it all with us instead of going to law about it and ruining our name for life?”’

["]I might have gone to you[,”] I replied ["]but what good would it have done to go to your daughter? Didn’t she live for weeks in the same house with me after she knew that there was something the matter without offering to make any explanation of any kind? We lunched and dined together daily after she knew that she was suspected but she remained silent. There never would have been all this trouble anyway if she had simply left our vicinity instead of insisting upon staying here.”

“But she has done nothing wrong, Mrs. Lyon continued, she couldn’t, Yet think what we have got to face. All her friends ask her why she does not refute the accusations but of what use is it for her to refute them, your father is the only one who can do that, oh! I have always believed in my God in Heaven, I had faith in my Redeemer, but what trouble I have had and still have.” She had such a tragic expression in her face that one or two tears dropped from my eyes onto her dress and when she saw them she drew me down with one arm about my neck and poured forth a fresh appeal for her daughter’s name “Please say in the paper that she never did anything that wasn’t perfectly honorable and straight” —

I glanced at Mr. Lark and then said “Would you like us to say that she has made restitution and that her accounts had gotten mixed because of overwork?”

At first Mrs. Lyon said yes but then concluded it was better to say nothing more. She seemed suddenly to be almost prostrated and kept exclaiming “I feel so sick, so sick”—so we helped her into the house and got her onto the sofa.

When I leaned over to say goodbye she said in a low tone “you nearly killed her when you suspected her of taking things that time in the garret when Dorothea Gilder was there—”

I replied that I had only asked her about some beads which had been in an old cabinet for years & were now missing, “Well didn’t you find them?” she asked. “Yes, I answered, but not in the same place.”

Then Mrs. Lyon in the midst of sobs drew me down still nearer and whispered in my ear “if she ever did anything wrong it was because she was ill.”

Mr. Lark then suggested our going & we left her in the care of Wells [MTP: L-A MS XXI]. Note: paragraphing and other minor TS errors corrected, See also Hill, 234-6, which includes a detailed account of the audit performed by John Stanchfield’s accountant, Mr. Weiss.

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