ntally. It was therefore not very
long before her services became indispensable to him in finding
references in his law library, and in many ways connected with his
profession.

Of two other things in connection with Agnes I must speak. Physically
she was the perfection of ideal womanhood. She was strong in limb and
body, yet possessed all the grace of contour essential to the feminine
scheme of beauty. She had never been corseted in her life, and yet her
figure was superb, being well rounded and full, yet so supple that
every muscle was obedient to her will. She could ride a horse, leap a
fence, swim, fish, and row a boat as well and untiringly as a man, yet
in nothing was she masculine. She had cultivated all of those physical
possibilities of her body, which it should be the privilege of all
women to do, without transgressing some rule of society which has been
fashioned to protect the weaker specimens of the sex, rather than to
develop the dormant energies of womankind. It was her constant boast
that neither rain nor sun, nor any untoward freak of the elements,
could deter her from pursuing a pre-arranged purpose. She never
"caught cold." In truth she had never been ill one whole day since her
birth.

The other matter may seem a slight one, as I describe it, but were you
to meet the girl, you would notice it very quickly. I allude to her
manner of speech. We all of us, when writing, are careful in forming
our sentences. We spell all words in full, avoiding abbreviations. But
note well the speech of even the most liberally educated and carefully
nurtured, and what do we discover? That our English is sadly
defective, not merely in grammatical construction, but, more
particularly, in pronunciation, and in enunciation. We slur many
letters, and merge many words, the one into the other. We are so
pressed for time that we cannot pause to breathe between words; our
sentences have no commas, and sometimes not even periods, that can be
recognized as such. In our hurry we use abbreviations whenever
possible. We say "don't," "won't," "can't," and many others that we
"shouldn't."

Agnes never did this. Her language was always as correct, her
pronunciation as perfect, and her enunciation as distinct, as though
she were constantly studying to be a purist. You say that she must
have been affected! But you are wrong. Not for an instant did she make
such an impression upon any one. In this, as in all things, she was
merely her