Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/346

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338 MRS. TROLLOPE. waxing pale, as they sit for long, sultry hours, immured with hundreds of fellow victims, listening to the roaring vanities of a preacher canonized by a college of old women ? They cannot think it needful to salvation, or they would not withdraw themselves. Wherefore is it ? Do they fear these self-elected, self-ordained priests, and offer up their wives and daughters to propitiate them ? Or do they deem their hebdomadal freedom more com- plete because their wives and daughters are shut up four or five times in the day at church or chapel ? " But enough of these specimens. The republic being insupportable, and Mrs. Trollope's Diary being still incomplete, it was necessary for the family to come to a resolution. Their eldest son, Thomas Adolplms, nineteen years of age, was old enough to be entered at Oxford University, and it was necessary for his father to go with him to England. After family consultations, they resolved upon a brief separation, the father and eldest son to go to England, the mother with her two daughters and younger son to visit the Eastern portions of the country, and fill up the Diary. That second son, then about fourteen years of age, was Henry Trollope, after- wards the famous English novelist, whose recent death was lamented in America not less than in England. No sooner had they come to this resolution than a piece of news reached Cincinnati which induced the gentlemen to postpone their departure. General Jackson, President- elect, was on his triumphal journey to Washington, and was expected to stop a few hours at Cincinnati on his way up the Ohio. They determined to wait and get pas- sage on board of the steamboat that bore so distinguished a personage. Mrs. Trollope and her family walked down to the landing to see the arrival of the old hero, and she almost enjoyed the spectacle. " The noble steamboat which conveyed him was flanked