gment
and taste of the companion of her life. And he seems to have been
everything that heart could desire as loving critic and counsellor. Her
sympathy with the lives and hopes of others is very charming,
particularly with the love and marriage of their eldest boy, though it
is shown constantly in a true womanly way; as, for instance:--

"A pretty thing has happened to an acquaintance of mine, which is
quite a tonic to one's hope. She has all her life been working in
various ways, as housekeeper, governess, etc.,--a dear little dot
about four feet eleven in height; pleasant to look at and clever; a
working-woman without any of those epicene queernesses that belong
to the class. More than once she has told me that courage quite
forsook her. She felt there was no good in living and striving.
Well, a man of fortune and accomplishments has just fallen in love
with her--now she is thirty-three. It is the prettiest story of a
swift-decided passion, and made me cry for joy. Madame B---- and I
went with her to buy her wedding clothes. If you will only imagine
all I have not said, you will think this a very charming fairy
tale."

In 1878 her happy companionship with the man she had so passionately
loved was ended by his death. The only entry in her diary in 1879 is
this: "Here I and sorrow sit." The desolation of her life told terribly
upon her health and spirits. She saw no one, wrote to no one, had no
thoughts, as she tells us, for many months. Among the first lines she
wrote were these:--

"Some time, if I live, I shall be able to see you,--perhaps sooner
than any one else,--but not yet. Life seems to get harder instead
of easier. When I said some time, I meant still a distant time. I
want to live a little time, that I may do certain things for his
sake. So I try to keep up my strength, and I work as much as I can
to save my mind from imbecility. But that is all at present. But
what used to be joy is joy no longer, and what is pain is easier,
because he has not to bear it."

Again:--

"You must excuse my weakness, remembering that for nearly
twenty-five years I have been used to find my happiness in his. I
can find it nowhere else. But we can live and be helpful without
happiness, and I have had more than myriads who were and are better
fitted for it."

As soon as she was able to see any f