near Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary. Her father came of a good
family, as did also her mother, who spoke unduly often of her
ancestors, the Desmonds. Marguerite was not comely in her early
girlhood, though her sister Ellen and her brother Robert were handsome
children. As a child, she was sensitive and sentimental, and her
delight was to browse in a library,--and it was this taste that
equipped her for her later friendships. Her power of imagination was
uncommonly strong, and she became the entertainer of her
children-companions with stories of her own imagining, as well as by
her recitals of legends and romance learned in the library. Her father
removed to Clonmel, and became editor of a paper there. He was not
prosperous, and was a man of perverse temper, which grew with
adversity. Marguerite and her sister were fancied by some wealthy
maiden-lady relatives, and were taken by them to a home of comfort. On
their return to Clonmel,--beautiful, and with the distinction of
knowledge and a clever use of it,--they were a contrast to the
ordinary Irish country girl, whose whole equipment of dress and
accomplishments was "two washing gowns and a tune on the piano." The
girls took part in all the gayeties of the town, and, besides the
charm of their conversation, were graceful dancers; and though
Marguerite was less beautiful, she was most tasteful in dress, and
this became always a noted characteristic of hers. They became the
attraction of an English regiment recently stationed in the town, and
Marguerite was soon married, through the insistence of her father, to
a Captain Farmer, when less than fifteen years of age. This was the
great misfortune of her life.

Her husband was subject to fits of insanity, and her whole feeling
towards him was that of aversion. Cruelty and caprice were the chief
components of his character. From his tyranny she fled,--first to her