and Mrs. Thaxter very pleasant. Mrs.
Thaxter sent Una a necklace of native shells with a gold and coral
clasp, Julian a plume made of white owl feathers, and Rosebud a most
exquisite wreath of sea-moss upon a card. I kept a journal for my
husband, according to his express injunction. The children missed
papa miserably, and I could not bear the trial very well. I could not
eat, sitting opposite his empty chair at table, and I lost several
pounds of flesh.
To-day, when baby waked from a nap of four hours and a half, she
called for the first time, "Mamma!" I ran up, and she was smiling like
a constellation of stars. She mourned after papa a great deal, and
sometimes would hold a long discourse about him, pointing all the
while at the portrait. One day a neighbor sent me, to cheer my
loneliness, the most superb bouquet of rare and costly rosebuds that I
ever saw. I put them in the Study, in a pretty champagne-glass [the
tall, old-fashioned kind], and they filled the room with fragrance. I
tended them very carefully; but they bloomed too fully at last. Yet
just at that moment, the lady gave me a fresh supply--the very day
before Mr. Hawthorne's return; and on that bright Friday afternoon I
put the vase of delicious rosebuds, and a beautiful China plate of
peaches and grapes, and a basket of splendid golden Porter apples on
his table; and we opened the western door [leading from the Study to
the lawn] and let in a flood of sunsetting. Apollo's "beautiful
disdain" seemed kindled anew.
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