ry and a good
appearance before the world. My pride, if I had any, delighted
in bare walls and rugged fare. She was addicted to strong tea
and coffee, both which I rejected and contemned, even in the
most homoeopathic dilutions: while, my general health being
sound, and hers sadly impaired, I could not fail to find in
her dietetic habits the causes of her almost habitual illness;
and once, while we were still barely acquainted, when she
came to the breakfast-table with a very severe headache, I was
tempted to attribute it to her strong potations of the Chinese
leaf the night before. She told me quite frankly that she
'declined being lectured on the food or beverage she saw fit
to take;' which was but reasonable in one who had arrived
at her maturity of intellect and fixedness of habits. So
the subject was thenceforth tacitly avoided between us; but,
though words were suppressed, looks and involuntary gestures
could not so well be; and an utter divergency of views on this
and kindred themes created a perceptible distance between us.

"Her earlier contributions to the Tribune were not her best,
and I did not at first prize her aid so highly as I afterwards
learned to do. She wrote always freshly, vigorously, but not
always clearly; for her full and intimate acquaintance with
continental literature, especially German, seemed to have
marred her felicity and readiness of expression in her mother
tongue. While I never met another woman who conversed more
freely or lucidly, the attempt to commit her thoughts to paper
seemed to induce a singular embarrassment and hesitation. She
could write only when in the vein; and this needed often to be
waited for through several days, while the occasion sometimes
required an immediate utterance. The new book must be reviewed
before other journals had thoroughly dissected and discussed
it, else the ablest critique would command no general
attention, and perhaps be, by the greater number, unread. That
the writer should wait the flow of inspiration, or at least
the recurrence of elasticity of spirits and relative health of
body, will not seem unreasonable to the general reader; but
to the inveterate hack-horse of the daily press, accustomed to
write at any time, on any subject, and with a rapidity
limited only by the physical ability to form