ound the fancies of a day with the requisitions of eternal
good."

So much for the woman Sand, as known to Margaret through her works and
by hearsay. Of the writer she first knew through her "Seven Strings of
the Lyre," a rhapsodic sketch. Margaret prizes in this "the knowledge of
the passions and of social institutions, with the celestial choice which
was above them." In the romances "Andre" and "Jacques" she traces "the
same high morality of one who had tried the liberty of circumstance only
to learn to appreciate the liberty of law.... Though the sophistry of
passion in these books disgusted me, flowers of purest hue seemed to
grow upon the dark and dirty ground. I thought she had cast aside the
slough of her past life, and begun a new existence beneath the sun of a
new ideal." The "Lettres d'un Voyageur" seem to Margaret shallow,--the
work of "a frail woman mourning over her lot." But when "Consuelo"
appears, she feels herself strengthened in her first interpretation of
George Sand's true character, and takes her stand upon the "original
nobleness and love of right" which even the wild impulses of her fiery
blood were never able entirely to oversweep. Of the work itself she
says:--

"To many women this picture will prove a true _consuelo_ (consolation),
and we think even very prejudiced men will not read it without being
charmed with the expansion, sweetness, and genuine force of a female
character such as they have not met, but must, when painted, recognize
as possible, and may be led to review their opinions, and perhaps to
elevate and enlarge their hopes, as to 'woman's sphere' and 'woman's
mission.'"

CHAPTER IX.

MARGARET'S RESIDENCE AT THE GREELEY MANSION.--APPEARANCE IN NEW YORK
SOCIETY.--VISITS TO WOMEN IMPRISONED AT SING SING AND ON BLACKWELL'S
ISLAND.--LETTERS TO HER BROTHERS.--"WOMAN IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY."--ESSAY ON AMERICAN LITERATURE.--VIEW OF CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS.

We have no very full record of Margaret's life beneath the roof of the
Greeley mansion. The information that we can gather concerning it seems
to indicate that it was, on the whole, a period of rest and of
enlargement. True, her task-work continued without intermission, and her
incitements to exertion were not fewer than in the past. But the change
of scene and of occupation gives refreshment, if not repose, to minds of
such activity, and Margaret, accustomed to the burden of constant care
and anxiety, was now relieved fro