ink it is one among the many nuisances of being a "public
character," or what the American Minister's wife said her position had
made her, "_Une femme publique_," that one's likeness may thus be
stolen, and sold or bought by anybody who chooses to traffic in such
gear.

I remember my mother telling me of a painful circumstance which had
occurred to her from the same cause. A young officer of some
distinction, who died in India, left among his effects a miniature of
her; and she was disagreeably surprised by receiving from his mother a
heartbroken appeal to her, saying that the fact of her son's being in
possession of this portrait led her to hope that perhaps my mother might
possess one of him, and entreating her, if such were the case, to permit
her (his mother) to have a copy of it, as she had no likeness of her
son. My mother was obliged to reply that she had no such portrait, and
had never known or even heard the name of the gentleman who was in
possession of hers....

How many things make one feel as if one's whole life was only a confused
dream! Wouldn't it be odd to wake at the end, and find one had not lived
at all? Many perhaps will wake at the end, and find it so indeed in one
sense,--which brings us back to the more serious aspect of things....

I had some time ago a joint-stock letter from my brother John and his
wife, informing me of the birth of their son. I do not think they
mentioned who was to be its godmother; but I quite agree with Mrs.
Kemble (my Uncle John's widow), as to the inexpediency of undertaking
such a sponsorship for any one's child. If it means anything, it means
something so serious that I should shrink from such a responsibility;
and if it means (as it generally does) nothing, I think it would be
better omitted altogether. When I was at home I dissuaded my sister from
standing godmother to their little girl; but I do not think any of them
understood my motive for doing so....

You ask me whether the specimens of Irish order, neatness, and
intelligence which came over here to fill our domestic ranks are beyond
training. Truly, training is, for the most part, so far beyond _them_,
that it is no easy matter to simplify even the first rudiments of the
science of civilization sufficiently to render them intelligible to
these fair countrywomen of yours. Patience is a fine thing, and might
accomplish something, perhaps; but there are insuperable bars to any
hope of their progress in the hig