strongest wishes were expressed, on all sides, that the
conversations should be renewed at the beginning of the following
winter. Margaret willingly consented; but, as I have already
intimated, in the summer and autumn of 1840, she had retreated to some
interior shrine, and believed that she came into life and society with
some advantage from this devotion.

Of this feeling the new discussion bore evident traces. Most of the
last year's class returned, and new members gave in their names. The
first meeting was holden on the twenty-second of November, 1840. By
all accounts it was the best of all her days. I have again the notes,
taken at the time, of the excellent lady at whose house it was
held, to furnish the following sketch of the first and the following
meetings. I preface these notes by an extract from a letter of
Margaret.

TO W.H.C.

'_Sunday, Nov. 8th, 1840_.--On Wednesday I opened with my
class. It was a noble meeting. I told them the great changes
in my mind, and that I could not be sure they would be
satisfied with me now, as they were when I was in deliberate
possession of myself. I tried to convey the truth, and though
I did not arrive at any full expression of it, they all, with
glistening eyes, seemed melted into one love. Our relation
is now perfectly true, and I do not think they will ever
interrupt me. ---- sat beside me, all glowing; and the moment
I had finished, she began to speak. She told me afterwards,
she was all kindled, and none there could be strangers to her
more. I was really delighted by the enthusiasm of Mrs. ----. I
did not expect it. All her best self seemed called up, and she
feels that these meetings will be her highest pleasure. ----,
too, was most beautiful. I went home with Mrs. F., and had a
long attack of nervous headache. She attended anxiously on me,
and asked if it would be so all winter. I said, if it were I
did not care; and truly I feel just now such a separation from
pain and illness,--such a consciousness of true life, while
suffering most,--that pain has no effect but to steal some of
my time.'

[Footnote A: A friend has furnished me with the names of so many of
the ladies as she recollects to have met, at one or another time, at
these classes. Some of them were perhaps only occasional members.
The list recalls how much talent, beauty, and worth were at that time
constellated