36 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



she had told of her preparations for turning the extraor- 

 dinary estabhshment into a home and making it " cheerful 

 and comfortable." Her plans had been complicated during 

 this same absence of Agassiz by'* Papa Christinat," who 

 believing that it would be best to leave the newly married 

 couple to manage the household, had suddenly taken his 

 departure to a French parish in New Orleans. His decision 

 was a matter of deep regret to the bride elect, for such was 

 his familiarity with all the details of Agassiz's daily life that 

 his presence would have lifted many responsibilities from 

 her shoulders after she became the mistress of the house in 

 Oxford Street. "I have assured him," she writes character- 

 istically to Agassiz after having had a long talk with Mr. 

 Christinat, "that he will never find me tenacious of my 

 rights, that I should be not only willing but glad to give 

 up to him the occupations that he has had at your house; 

 but all I urge in argument or affectionate persuasion is 

 useless." "You must not be quite in despair at the thought 

 of my ignorance and inexperience in household matters," 

 she says in another letter, "for I hope to convince you that 

 I can be quite an efficient person on occasion; but I know 

 that the loss of Mr. Christinat as a useful assistant in your 

 household will be but a small part of your regret and in 

 other things I cannot so easily fill his place." Her difficulties 

 were simplified, however, by the scattering of several of the 

 foreign members of the establishment and many assistants. 

 Mr. Jacques Burkhardt, an artist friend of Agassiz, his fel- 

 low-student at Munich and now his draughtsman, alone re- 

 mained, and continued to live in the family until his death 

 seventeen years later at the house of Agassiz's younger 

 daughter, Mrs. Shaw. In the summer preceding Agassiz's 



