safeguard to him. Insidious persons suggested that he perfumed his beard,
but I do not believe it. He does not appear to have been fond of walking,
for we never met him in any part of Cambridge except on the direct road
from Elmwood to the college gate. He had a characteristic gait of his
own--walking slowly in rather a dreamy manner, and keeping time to the
movement of his feet with his arms and shoulders. He was not, however,
lost in contemplation, for he often scrutinized those who passed him as
closely as a portrait painter might.

If one could meet Lowell in a fairly empty horse-car, he would be quite
sociable and entertaining; but if the horse-car filled up, he would
become reticent again. He clung to his old friends, his classmates, and
others with whom he had grown up, and did not easily make new ones. The
modesty of his ambition is conspicuous in the fact that he was quite
satisfied with the small salary paid him by the college,--at first only
twelve hundred dollars. He evidently did not care for luxury.

Lowell's second marriage was as simple and inevitable as the first. Miss
Dunlap was not an ordinary housekeeper, but the sister of one of Maria
Lowell's most intimate friends, and she was such a pleasant, attractive
lady that the wonder is rather he should have waited four years before
concluding to offer himself. She was compared to the Greek bust called
Clyte, because her hair grew so low down upon her forehead, and this was
considered an additional charm.

Louisa Alcott had a story that at first she refused Lowell's offer on
account of what people might say; and that then he composed a poem
answering her objections in the form of an allegory, and that this
finally convinced her. If he had considered material interests he would
have married differently.