ere in her letters are important, in showing us what companionship
she had gained in return for her great sacrifice.

Ossoli seems to have belonged to a type of character the very opposite
of that which Margaret had best known and most admired. To one wearied
with the over-intellection and restless aspiration of the accomplished
New Englander of that time, the simple geniality of the Italian nature
had all the charm of novelty and contrast. Margaret had delighted in the
race from her first acquaintance with it, but had found its happy
endowments heavily weighted with traits of meanness and ferocity. In her
husband she found its most worthy features, and her heart, wearied with
long seeking and wandering, rested at last in the confidence of a simple
and faithful attachment.

She writes from Florence: "My love for Ossoli is most pure and tender;
nor has any one, except my mother or little children, loved me so
genuinely as he does. To some, I have been obliged to make myself known.
Others have loved me with a mixture of fancy and enthusiasm, excited at
my talent of embellishing life. But Ossoli loves me from simple
affinity; he loves to be with me, and to serve and soothe me."

And in another letter she says: "Ossoli will be a good father. He has
very little of what is called intellectual development, but has
unspoiled instincts, affections pure and constant, and a quiet sense of
duty which, to me who have seen much of the great faults in characters
of enthusiasm and genius, seems of highest value."

Some reminiscences contributed by the accomplished _litterateur_,
William Henry Hurlbut, will help to complete the dim portrait of the
Marchese:--

"The frank and simple recognition of his wife's singular nobleness,
which he always displayed, was the best evidence that his own nature was
of a fine and noble strain. And those who knew him best are, I believe,
unanimous in testifying that his character did in no respect belie the
evidence borne by his manly and truthful countenance to its warmth and
sincerity. He seemed quite absorbed in his wife and child. I cannot
remember ever to have found Madame Ossoli alone, on the evenings when
she remained at home."

Mr. Hurlbut says further: "Notwithstanding his general reserve and
curtness of speech, on two or three occasions he showed himself to
possess quite a quick and vivid fancy, and even a certain share of
humor. I have heard him tell stories remarkably well. One tale
esp