rom loving friends. A billiard-room with well-worn cues and balls
may in a measure account for his vigorous sermons--quite a novel
adjunct to a parsonage. A garden reception there to Mr. and Mrs.
Howells, gave us an opportunity to see the American novelist
surrounded by his admiring friends. Howells and Hawthorne seemed to
be great favorites in the literary circles of England at that time,
but I never read one of their novels without regretting for the
honor of American women that they had not painted more vigorous and
piquant characters for their heroines.

One was always sure of meeting some Americans worth knowing at the
Conway's in Bedford Park. We dined there with Mary Clemmer and Mr.
Hudson, just after their marriage, and a bright, pretty daughter of
Murat Halstead, who chatted as gaily among the staid English as on
her native heath. There, too, we first saw Mrs. William Mellen with
her daughters, from Colorado Springs, now residing in London for
the purpose of educating a family of seven children,[577] although
there is no so fitting place to educate children to the duties of
citizens of a republic, as under our own free institutions. If
possessed of wealth, they readily adopt aristocratic ideas, and
enjoy the distinctions of class they find in all monarchical
countries, which totally unfit them for properly appreciating the
democratic principles it is our interest to cherish at home.

The Sunday after Mr. Conway left for Australia, I was invited to
fill his pulpit. Spending a few days with Mrs. Conway, we attended
the Ladies' Club one afternoon. The leading spirits seemed to be
Miss Orme and Miss Richardson, both attorneys in practice, with an
office in London, though not yet regularly admitted to the Queen's
Bench. The topic of discussion was the well-worn theme--the
education of girls; but no one seemed quite prepared to take off
all the ligatures from their bodies and the fears of everything
known or unknown from their minds, and leave them for a season to
grow as nature intended, that we might find out by seeing them in
their normal condition what their real wants and needs might be. I
suggested for their next topic, the proper education of boys, which
was accepted. I retired that night very nervous over my sermon for
the next day, and the feeling steadily increased until I reached
the platform; but once there, my fears were all dissipated, and I
never enjoyed speaking more than on that occasion, for I had