Persuasion

Lisa stared into her mirror as her maid arranged her hair. It was a formality. It had been a long time since she had looked forward to a dinner party for purposes of romance. At her age she now had anticipation of a pleasant evening, but no more hopes than that.

As a wealthy and respected member of her community, it would never be suggested that she was an 'old maid', however, she was long past the age where gentlemen, other than those who were more interested in her fortune than her charms, would think of her in a matrimonial light.

Lisa watched as her black curls were tamed and arranged in a waterfall at the back of her head. She tried to sit patiently while listening to the servants prepare for the party in the main halls downstairs.

In the kitchen the cook and her assistants scurried about fussing with aspic, consommé, fish, game birds on spits, joints of meat and confectionary. Her footmen laid the table with her English china and her American Silver, everything had to be just so. It was a cool night, so fires burned in all the hearths. Hundreds of candles blazed, giving a glow to the house that reminded her of Christmas.

Finally she was finished. She regarded herself one last time, before descending to check on the preparations. She had decided on a white lace dress, trimmed in gold. It complimented her complexion and her figure. The golden embroidered slippers skipped silently across the wooden floors as Lisa cast satisfied eyes on her beautiful rooms.

Lisa poked her head into the kitchen. Mrs. Stanford stood at a large pot stirring soup. Molly was unmolding the aspic, her full attention on insuring that it came clear of the mold whole. "Mind you center that in the middle of the tray, dear!" Mrs. Stanford called out as she tasted the soup. "I think this is nearly done. John," she addressed the footman, "hand me the salt, it needs a pinch more." John did as he was told, stepping back out of the way as soon as he could.

Adams, her butler startled her. "Miss? May I help you?" Adams's sense of propriety was offended by the mistress's proximity to the kitchen.

"Just checking on the progress of my dinner. I see that Mrs. Stanford was able to secure guinea fowl." Lisa noted with approval.

Adams did not dignify this with a response. He chose not to acknowledge the presence of the kitchen.

She moved into the front parlor to wait for her guests. Soon carriages could be heard and lively conversation followed.

Lisa enjoyed parties. Here were Rev. and Mrs. Warner talking pleasantly with Dr. Wilson and his wife Julia. Chase and Foreman had arrived with House, who cast dark looks in the direction of the Warners. Lisa attributed that to his impatience with Rev. Warner's views on vaccination. The Jessups, a Quaker couple, were speaking with Anne and Mary Cary, two sisters visiting with their Aunt Prudence in Princeton.

Promptly at seven, Adams appeared, to announce that dinner was served. House took Lisa into the dining room where a fire burned at both ends. Mirrors reflected candle-light throughout the room. The rest of the guests followed and were seated at the large table.

Dishes were presented and served around as conversation centered around neighborhood news.

Chase enjoyed gentle teasing from Foreman, "Have you yet got used to our American medical system?"

Chase shook his head, "To think that I'm to understand everything associated with medicine. Not just as a physician, but also as a surgeon and apothecary."

Foreman agreed, "True, although it could be worse, you could have taken the route Dr. House took. Paris, Edinburgh, Philadelphia."

Chase laughed, "Not I. I am not made for such intensive study." He sipped again at a very good glass of wine.

Dr. House turned his attention to his apprentice, "So you say, yet I see you laboring long into the night. Is it not true that you have been making a large number of drawings from our new microscope?"

"Yes, but were you not the one who suggested that I do so?"

"You have a talent for it." House said simply. "So Miss Cuddy, I understand that you've recently had your piano tuned."

"Yes, Dr. House, and I do hope that you'll favor us with your playing later." She smiled at him. She knew that he too had an excellent instrument, but he did like an audience. "I have new sheet music." She hoped to tempt him.

He nodded, "Certainly."

"Miss Cary, I understand that you've brought some new books with you from Philadelphia." Lisa leaned toward her young guest.

"Oh, nothing that these gentlemen would find of interest. But I do have Miss Austen's newest novel, my cousin sent it from London. She also sent me Byron's Corsair." She smiled, "I adore Byron, don't you?"

Lisa smiled, "he is entertaining, and perhaps you will read it to us one afternoon."

"I shall bring it with me the next time I call." Miss Cary promised.

Soon it was time for the ladies to repair to the parlor while the men enjoyed cigars, claret and conversation. It had been determined that this is where Dr. Wilson would try to persuade Rev. Warner to soften his position on vaccination.

As the ladies left, Adams offered the gentlemen cigars from a cedar humidor Miss Cuddy kept for her gentlemen guests. "Miss Cuddy certainly is hospitable, wouldn't you say Reverend?" Wilson said congenially.

"Most assuredly. Fine table, fine wine, fine cigars. It is curious that she's never married, is it not?" He inhaled deeply as Adams held the flame for him. He nodded after it caught.

Dr. House paced a bit in front of the fire, he moved to the window, but was greeted by a mirror meant to reflect the candlelight. He watched as the flames danced in the dim light. "I think it is curious more people marry than do not." House asserted.

"Surely not Dr. House! Marriage represents the covenant between Christ and his church, how can you say so?" Rev. Warner rarely said anything unless it had been said before, by someone else.

Mr. Jessup smiled and shifted in his seat. Having declined the wine and cigars, he sat back and observed the others as they imbibed. "Reverend, does thou not admit that not all men and women have the inclination to marry? Our Lord, Himself chose not to take a wife."

House smiled, Mr. Jessup might have been a pacifist in theory, but there was no one who enjoyed debating issues more than he. He turned his attention to Rev. Warner. "Yes, Warner, what say you to that?"

Had Warner been a man accustomed to theological study, he might have had a handy answer, but as he was little more than a mockingbird, retelling ideas that he had heard other men speak, he was momentarily at a loss.

Wilson stepped in, "I am sure that should the right opportunity present itself, that Miss Cuddy would have no objection to marrying. But who would be a proper match for her? Would you have her marry out of convenience merely to say that she had wed?"

"Oh I'm sure that at her age she is long past wanting romance but I'm sure that companionship and protection would have appeal." Warner said, taking an opportunity to refill his glass.

"And yet she remains unmarried," House observed, "It appears that it does not appeal."

Warner shrugged, "Yet it is the duty of all fit men and women to marry. In time she will fulfill the purpose for which she is created." He seemed certain of this fact.

Chase rose and tried a new topic. "Our clinic is becoming more popular in the neighborhood. We have seen more patients in the past week than we have in any week previous."

"I wish I could say that I was pleased," Warner said, moving closer to the fire and warming his hands there.

"The good health of your flock doesn't please you?" House asked.

"Good health bestowed by our Creator will always please me," Warner began, "I can't help but be suspicious when men purport to offer what only God should."

"Yet you have no objection to doctors setting broken bones, or to midwives helping women through childbirth." House said, moving towards a chair, his stick tapping gently across the parquet floor.

Warner marshaled his thoughts, "These are mechanical acts. Your skills are the same as those of a blacksmith or of a printer."

House huffed in annoyance and sipped his wine, he turned to Wilson as though saying, I have no patience with this idiot.

Wilson stepped in, "is not all medicine God-given. Are we not inspired by God?"

Mr. Jessup added his opinion, "Christ performed miracles of healing, and doctors merely try to follow in His footsteps."

"Exactly my point, Christ performed miracles; he did not empower men to do so." Warner sat next to House on the divan.

House grimaced and rubbed his leg. He reached into his coat pocket and removed a vial. He dabbed a few drops on his tongue and washed them back with the remains of his wine. "Warner, we have a mandate from the government to vaccinate everyone in the village with Smallpox vaccine. Those who are vaccinated do not sicken with Smallpox. You oppose our attempts to do this. What do we need to do to have you join us in the nineteenth century?"

Wilson groaned and Chase laughed. Foreman sat quietly and waited for Warner's inevitable departure.

To his credit Warner did not storm out, "I can not endorse what is unnatural."

Wilson smiled, he believed that he had the answer, "but that's the beauty of it. It is wholly natural. By giving people cowpox, a natural disease, they do not get Smallpox. It's a natural process. The only thing that we doctors are doing is allowing more people to be exposed to Smallpox. God created this cure, we are only affecting it." Wilson smiled, satisfied that he had provided a winning argument.

Warner seemed somewhat persuaded, "that does seem simple enough, but is it not a sin for man to interfere with God's divine plan?"

House seemed less agitated, but he was also growing tired of the conversation, "if God's plan is for someone to die of Smallpox, how any man could frustrate it?"

Mr. Jessup tried to hide his amusement. Forman redirected his attention by asking him a question. They resumed their private conversation.

"Dr. House, nothing man creates can overtake God." Warner grew haughty.

House rose and moved nearly toe to toe with him, "then you'll give us no more trouble?"

Warner moved back, "No need. I leave you to your science."

"Good, now we can join the ladies. I've been eager to try out that new sheet music." House moved towards the door.

Author's Note: Boy! The research on this thing is a bear! There's very little written about American Medicine in the early 19th century. What I have discovered is that the American system differs greatly from the English system, which, oddly enough, I'm MUCH more familiar with. New Jersey was the first state in the country to have a formal association of doctors and they regulated and licensed themselves. American doctors do not make a distinction between physicians, surgeons and apothecaries, as they did in England. I'll probably not be delving too much into the actual Hospital, because medicine in the early 19th century was disgusting. Seriously. As for hospitals, there were a few, specifically in Pennsylvania, although they probably don't resemble anything like a hospital that we'd recognize as such today. Additionally, American mores and customs, even in our early colonial days were much less rigid than our friends overseas.