talk with her, I should show my consciousness of her history so much as to be painful.’ Margaret was very indignant at this weakness. Said she, ‘This girl is taken away, you know, from all her objects of interest, and must feel her life vacant and dreary. Her mind should be employed; she should be made to feel her powers.’ It was plain that if Margaret had been near her, she would have devoted herself at once to her education and reëstablishment.”
About the time of breaking up their home, Margaret
thus expressed, to one of her brothers, her hopes and
plans. ‘You wish, dear ——, that I was not obliged to
toil and spin, but could live, for a while, like the lilies.
I wish so, too, for life has fatigued me, my strength is
little, and the present state of my mind demands repose
and refreshment, that it may ripen some fruit worthy
of the long and deep experiences through which I
have passed. I do not regret that I have shared the
labors and cares of the suffering million, and have
acquired a feeling sense of the conditions under which
the Divine has appointed the development of the human.
Yet, if our family affairs could now be so arranged,
that I might be tolerably tranquil for the next six or
eight years, I should go out of life better satisfied with
the page I have turned in it, than I shall if I must
still toil on. A noble career is yet before me, if I can
be unimpeded by cares. I have given almost all my
young energies to personal relations; but, at present, I
feel inclined to impel the general stream of thought.
Let my nearest friends also wish that I should now
take share in more public life.’
