feel herself still capable of the best things in life--of interest in her
fellow-creatures, kindness to them, and a little gentle intellectual
occupation, with books and men around. She had not forgotten anything in
her life,--not the excitements and delights of her beauty, nor love, nor
grief, nor the higher levels she had touched in her day. She did not
forget the dark day when her first-born was laid in the grave, nor that
triumphant and brilliant climax of her life when every one pointed to her
as the mother of a hero. All these things were like pictures hung in the
secret chambers of her mind, to which she could go back in silent
moments, in the twilight seated by the fire, or in the balmy afternoon,
when languor and sweet thoughts are over the world. Sometimes at such
moments there would be heard from her a faint sob, called forth, it was
quite as likely, by the recollection of the triumph as by that of the
deathbed. With these pictures to go back upon at her will she was never
dull, but saw herself moving through the various scenes of her life with
a continual sympathy, feeling for herself in all her troubles,--sometimes
approving, sometimes judging that woman who had been so pretty, so happy,
so miserable, and had gone through everything that life can go through.
How much that is, looking back upon it!--passages so hard that the wonder
was how she could survive them; pangs so terrible that the heart would
seem at its last gasp, but yet would revive and go on.

Besides these, however, she had many mild pleasures. She had a pretty
house full of things which formed a graceful _entourage_ suitable, as
she felt, for such a woman as she was, and in which she took pleasure for
their own beauty,--soft chairs and couches, a fireplace and lights
which were the perfection of tempered warmth and illumination. She had a
carriage, very comfortable and easy, in which, when the weather was
suitable, she went out; and a pretty garden and lawns, in which, when she
preferred staying at home, she could have her little walk, or sit out