so weary of Cambridge scenery, my heart would not give access to a summer feeling there. The evenings lately have been those of Paradise, and I have been very happy in them. The people here are much more agreeable than in most country towns; there is no vulgarity of manners, but little of feeling, and I hear no gossip.”[1]
Again she writes to him that she keeps “Uhland’s poems for some still and lovely afternoon,” and there is henceforth a blending of natural objects with literature and art in all she writes.
Cordial letters from her friends also removed the natural dread of dropping out from her old circle, and finding herself not missed. In the same note to Dr. Hedge she wrote thus: —
“Your letter was very grateful to me, and I confess I had not expected such a token of remembrance. Since I came here I have had much reason to believe that there exists more warmth of feeling in the little world wherein I have been living than I had supposed. I expected that my place would immediately be filled by some person “about my age and height.” I have not found it so. My former intimates sigh at least, if they do not pine, for my society.”
In Groton she read profusely, borrowing her books chiefly from Dr. Hedge, then, as always, a fountain of knowledge in the way of German. It was a period, we must remember, when the mere perusal of German books was considered
- ↑ MS.
