roof of Madam Lathrop we existed as a separate household, yet more closely entwined by the intercourse of every passing year. Having lost in one week, and ere the age of thirty, her three beautiful and promising boys, whose places were never supplied, the yearning tenderness of a heart which had continued to flow out toward the children of others, concentrated itself on the little one born in her house. No cast of character could be predicated that would more salubriously and permanently have influenced the unfolding mind and heart. Dignified in person, with the commanding yet courteous manner of the old school, her powerful intellect was strengthened by familiarity with the best authors, and association with the most distinguished men of the country. Fulness of benevolence, and a pervading piety, melted the pride of position and wealth, and made her the loving disciple of the Saviour, in whom she early believed.
To my eye she was the model of perfect beauty, for I beheld her through a heart that was all her own. It made no difference that almost fourscore years had passed over her ere I saw the light:
"For yet no boasted grace or symmetry
Of form or feature—not the bloom of youth
Or blaze of beauty, ever could awake
Within my soul such joy, as when I gaz'd
On that lov'd eye. Nor could the boasted pomp
Of eloquence that seizes on the brain
