whom they were familiar; also that strange portrait of him taken
standing at a window, and looking out over Rome, in which nothing but
his back can be seen.

"I find it impossible to recall what Longfellow said, but he
scintillated all the evening. It was an occasion such as he loved
best. His _jeux d'esprit_ flew rapidly right and left, often
setting the table in a roar of laughter, a most unusual thing with
him."

There was evidently no such pleasure to Longfellow as that of doing
kindnesses. One of many notes bearing on such subjects belongs to this
year, and begins:--

"A thousand thanks for your note and its inclosure. There goes a gleam
of sunshine into a dark house, which is always pleasant to think of. I
have not yet got the senator's sunbeam to add to it; but as soon as I
do, both shall go shining on their way."

"_January_, 1871.--Dined at Longfellow's, and afterwards went
upstairs to see an interesting collection of East Indian curiosities.
Passing through his dressing-room, I was struck with the likeness of
his private rooms to those of a German student or professor; a
Goethean aspect of simplicity and space everywhere, with books put in
the nooks and corners and all over the walls. It is surely a most
attractive house!"

Again I find a record of a dinner at Cambridge: "The day was
springlike, and the air full of the odors of fresh blossoms. As we
came down over the picturesque old staircase, he was standing with a