nswering countless letters and satisfying the demands of impatient
editors. And this done, she would revel in the enjoyment of fresh air.
"Soft winds and bright blue skies," she writes, "make me, or dispose me
to be, a sad idler." For this reason she delighted in the rigour of
winter, as being most conducive to literary productiveness.

A heavy sorrow was overshadowing this happy home. Between Mrs. Hemans
and her mother there was the strongest bond of affection. In her poems
there may be traced the intensity of this love. It is found in the
simple lines, "On my Mother's Birthday," when the child was only eight
years old, and, after incidentally appearing in many a poem, it is shown
in all its intensity in the "Hymn by the Sick-bed of a Mother."

"Father, that in the olive shade,
When the dark hour came on,
Didst, with a breath of heavenly aid,
Strengthen Thy Son;

Oh, by the anguish of that night,
Send us down blest relief;
Or to the chastened, let Thy might
Hallow this grief!"

And if the flame of passionate affection shone out in the time of fear
and impending sorrow, no less was it seen after the dread hour had come.
What beauty there is in the lines entitled "The Charmed Picture":--

"Sweet face, that o'er my childhood shone,
Whence is thy power of change,
Thus ever shadowing back my own,
The rapid and the strange?

Whence are they charmed--those earnest eyes?
I know the mystery well!
In mine own trembling bosom lies
The spirit of the spell!"

[Illustration: Edna Hemans]

This mother patiently bore sickness for eight months, and then passed
away. Something of what this blow meant to the loving daughter may be
gathered from her letters. But she knew where true comfort was to be
found, and in alluding to the words of another setting forth the Divine
consolation, she says, "This is surely the language of real consolation;
how different from that which attempts to soothe us by general remarks
on the common lot, the course of Nature, or even by dwelling on the
release of the departed from pain and trial."

It was not surprising that her health, for a long time delicate, now
showed signs of an alarming nature. She often had a complete prostration
of strength, succeeded by a wonderful reaction.

VII.

REMOVAL FROM WALES.

The place of Mrs. Hemans in the literary world was established. As mi