ation of many of which would
give a false impression of the relations between the son and the
father. Louis was twenty-five when I first met him, and the period of
the religious discussion was long past. Mr. Thomas Stevenson loved me
and was as kind to me as though I were his own daughter. I cannot, for
the sake of an extra volume that would produce a certain amount of
money, do anything that in my heart would seem disloyal to the dear
old man's memory--all the more because he is dead."

In her character there were many strange contradictions, and I think
sometimes this was a part of her attraction, for even after knowing
her for years one could always count on some surprise, some unexpected
contrast which went far in making up her fascinating personality.
Notwithstanding the broad view that she took of life in most of its
aspects, in some things she was old-fashioned. She was never
reconciled, for instance, to female suffrage, and once when she was
persuaded to attend a political meeting at which her daughter was one
of the speakers, she sat looking on with mingled pride in her
daughter's eloquence and horror at her sentiments. Yet, after the
suffrage was granted to women in California, her family was amused to
see her go to the polls and vote and carefully advise the men employed
on her place concerning their ballots.

Some persons were repelled by what they considered Mrs. Stevenson's
cold and distant manner, but they were not aware of what it took her
own family a long time to discover--that this apparent detachment and
sphinxlike immobility covered a real and childlike shyness; yet it was
never apathy, but the stillness of a frightened wild creature that has
never been tamed. Though she said so little, she never failed to
create an impression. Some one once said of her that her silence was
more fascinating than the most brilliant conversation of other women,
and, indeed, "Where Macgregor sits is the head of the table" applied
very aptly to her. Her manner had nothing of the aggressive
self-confidence of the "capable woman." She seemed so essentially
feminine, low-voiced, quiet, even helplessly appealing, that it was
difficult to realize that she was a fair shot, a fearless horsewoman,
a first-rate cook, an expert seamstress, a really scientific gardener,
a most skillful nurse, and had, besides, some working acquaintance
with many trades and professions upon which she could draw in an
emergency.

Her physical co