tant was her humble home and her
association with the common life of the people. Through all her work these
influences appear, coloring her thought, shaping her views of life, and
increasing her sympathies and affections. Her tender, enthusiastic love of
humble life never lost any of its quickening power. The faith of childhood
was lost, but its memory was left in a warm appreciation of all phases of
religious life and a heartfelt sympathy with all the sorrows and
aspirations of men.

Her father's health becoming very poor, Marian spent the next two or three
years in the care of him. She read to him most of Scott's novels, devoting
several hours each day to this task. During this period she made a visit to
the Isle of Wight, and there read the novels of Richardson. Her father died
in 1849, and she was very much affected by this event. She grieved for him
overmuch, and could find no consolation. Her friends, the Brays, to divert
and relieve her mind, invited her to take a continental tour with them.
They travelled extensively in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Her
grief, however, was so excessive as to receive little relief, and her
friends began to fear the results. On their return to England they left her
at Geneva, where she remained for nearly a year. After some months in a
boarding-house near Geneva she became an inmate of the family of M.
d'Albert Durade, a Swiss water-color painter of some reputation, who
afterwards became the translator of her works into French. She devoted the
winter of 1849-50 to the study of French and its literature, to mathematics
and to reading. Her teacher in mathematics soon told her that she was able
to proceed without his aid. She read Rousseau and studied the French
socialists. M. Durade painted her portrait, making a remarkable picture.
The softness of the clear blue eyes, in which is expressed a profound depth
of thought, is one of its characteristics. M. Durade accompanied her to
England in the spring of 1850, and she went to live with her brother, where
she remained for a few months. The old family differences about religion
had alienated the brother and sister so far intellectually that she
accepted an invitation from the Brays to find a home with them. Her sadness
and grief continued, and her health was not good. Her fits of nervousness
and of tears were frequent, but her studies continued to occupy her mind.
She delighted to converse with Mr. Bray, and other persons of ea