He was too dreamy and pleasure-loving himself to be a spur to others. A
vague wonder, almost like a presentiment, haunted his thoughts continually
as to the nature of the relation which would exist between Stephen and
Mercy. One day he wrote a long letter to Stephen, telling him all about
Mercy,--her history; her peculiarities, mental and moral; her great need
of mental training; her wonderful natural gifts. He closed his letter in
these words:--

"There is the making of a glorious woman and, I think, a true poet in this
girl; but whether she ever makes either will depend entirely upon the
hands she falls into. She has a capacity for involuntary adaptation of
herself to any surroundings, and for an unconscious and indomitable
loyalty to the every-day needs of every-day life, which rarely go with the
poetic temperament. She would contentedly make bread and do nothing else,
till the day of her death, if that seemed to be the nearest and most
demanded duty. She would be heartily faithful and joyous every day, in
intercourse with only common and uncultivated people, if fate sets her
among them. She seems to me sometimes to be more literally a child of God,
in the true and complete sense of the word 'child,' than any one I ever
knew. She takes every thing which comes to her just as a happy and good
little child takes every thing that is given to him, and is pleased with
all; yet she is not at all a religious person. I am often distressed by
her lack of impulse to worship. I think she has no strong sense of a
personal God; yet her conscience is in many ways morbidly sensitive. She
is a most interesting and absorbing person,--one entirely unique in my
experience. Living with her, as you will, it will be impossible for you
not to influence her strongly, one way or the other; and I want to enlist
your help to carry on the work I have begun. She owes it to herself and to
the world not to let her mind be inactive. I am very much mistaken if she
has not within her the power to write poems, which shall take place among