This is a classic gem, and nothing could be added to it. The character
of Hilda in "The Marble Faun," is simply Mrs. Hawthorne at the age of
twenty-two. She was a pure-hearted, unselfish person, but not
self-reliant or over wise. There is a golden edge or rainbow hue to his
description of the old manse which distinguishes it from his other
writings and betrays the deeply penetrating happiness he felt there. It
is like a morning landscape painted while the dew is on the grass. One
notices especially his delight in the great yellow squash-blossoms and
the way in which he idealizes them. This, and the three years he spent
in Europe after the expiration of his consulate, were the holidays of
his life and the reward of all the rest.

With the exception of William Ellery Channing, he made no friends in
Concord, though he speaks kindly of Thoreau, and compares Channing to
him. It is to be suspected that this was largely on account of his
political principles--or the lack of them. He had held office under a
democratic administration and felt that his interests were connected
with that party. Further than that, he does not appear to have
distinguished between the two parties. Of his most intimate friends, one
was a democrat and the other a whig. But the annexation of Texas was now
in sight, and Concord was stirred again with the spirit of '75.
Hawthorne, as is well known, did not take interest in the antislavery
movement, and a heated discussion of any subject must have been jarring
and unpleasant to him.

It is not impossible that in this way he came into conflict with
Margaret Fuller and conceived an abiding dislike to her. Miss Fuller
would not have spared her eloquence in regard to what she considered a
matter of principle, nor is it likely that she would have been more