but in a situation of great natural loveliness. When
there I am perfectly secluded, yet everyone I wish to
see comes to see me, and I can get to the centre of the
city in half an hour. Here is all affection for me and
desire to make me at home; and I do feel so, which
could scarcely have been expected from such an
arrangement. My room is delightful; how I wish
you could sit at its window with me, and see the sails
glide by!
“As to the public part, that is entirely satisfactory. I do just as I please, and as much and as little as I please, and the editors express themselves perfectly satisfied, and others say that my pieces tell to a degree I could not expect. I think, too, I shall do better and better. I am truly interested in this great field which opens before me, and it is pleasant to be sure of a chance at half a hundred thousand readers."
The enlargement spoken of above was found by Margaret in her more varied field of literary action, and in the society of a city which had, even at that date, a cosmopolitan, semi-European character.
New York has always, with a little grumbling, con- ceded to Boston the palm of literary precedence. In spite of this, there has always been a good degree of friendly intercourse among its busy littérateurs and artists, who find, in the more vivid movement and wider market of the larger city, a compensation, if not an equivalent, for its distance from the recognized centres of intellectual influence.
In these circles Margaret was not only a welcome, but a desired guest. In the salons of the time she had the position of a celebrity. Here, as elsewhere, her twofold magnetism strongly attracted some and repelled others. Somewhat hypercritical and pedantic
