her speech so naked in frankness, her gaze so searching, her whole
attitude so alert. Her estimates of men, books, manners, events, art,
duty, destiny, were moulded after a grand ideal; and she was a severe
judge from the very loftiness of her standard. Her stately deportment,
border though it might on arrogance, but expressed high-heartedness.
Her independence, even if haughty and rash, was the natural action
of a self-centred will, that waited only fit occasion to prove itself
heroic. Her earnestness to read the hidden history of others was
the gauge of her own emotion. The enthusiasm that made her speech
so affluent, when measured by the average scale, was the unconscious
overflow of a poetic temperament. And the ardor of her friends'
affection proved the faithfulness of her love. Thus gradually the mist
melted away, till I caught a glimpse of her real self. We were one
evening talking of American literature,--she contrasting its boyish
crudity, half boastful, half timid, with the tempered, manly equipoise
of thorough-bred European writers, and I asserting that in its mingled
practicality and aspiration might be read bright auguries; when,
betrayed by sympathy, she laid bare her secret hope of what Woman
might be and do, as an author, in our Republic. The sketch was an
outline only, and dashed off with a few swift strokes, but therein
appeared her own portrait, and we were strangers no more.

It was through the medium of others, however, that at this time I best
learned to appreciate Margaret's nobleness of nature and principle. My
most intimate friend in the Theological School, James Freeman Clarke,
was her constant companion in exploring the rich gardens of German
literature; and from his descriptions I formed a vivid image of her
industry, comprehensiveness, buoyancy, patience, and came to honor
her intelligent interest in high problems of science, her
aspirations after spiritual greatness, her fine aesthetic taste, her
religiousness. By power to quicken other minds, she showed how living
was her own. Yet more near were we brought by common attraction toward
a youthful visitor in our circle, the untouched freshness of whose
beauty was but the transparent garb of a serene, confiding, and
harmonious soul, and whose polished grace, at once modest and naive,
sportive and sweet, fulfilled the charm of innate goodness of heart.
Susceptible in temperament, anticipating with ardent fancy the lot of
a lovely and refined w