THE LAST YEARS 387 



ask for so little — just to sit in my room and read aloud 

 to me — enough to make them quite happy." And on 

 St. Valentine's Day of the same year she records a call 

 from a young lover, — "It was a Valentine visit; dear httle 

 fellow, he was so pleased to bring me a bunch of lilies of the 

 valley, and he took home as his own Valentine a box of 

 very fine paper soldiers." Flowers, too, never ceased to 

 be a delight to her. " Orchids — such heavenly things," 

 "flowers of the most enchanting kind," "orchids — lilac, 

 purest amethyst and pale yellow — a beautiful combina- 

 tion" — these are some of the terms in which she records 

 the gifts that gratified her. Her diaries also contain numer- 

 ous entries, showing the extent of her reading during much 

 of this time, and how greatly she was able to enjoy it. 



January 17, 1905. — I have a great deal of pleas- 

 ant reading: Morley's Gladstone, unfinished. John 

 Andrew, brilliant story of an interesting and very 

 momentous life. Roma, Maude Elliott — to the last de- 

 gree interesting. Norton and Ruskin — a rare friend- 

 ship, recorded in letters. Montaigne, Grace Norton — 

 from various aspects and points of view, a very schol- 

 arly work — a help to any one who would fain be 

 better acquainted with Montaigne and his friends, not 

 only as men of letters and as men of the world, but as 

 companions and co-workers. 



March 8, 1905. — Mimi [Mrs. Theodore Lyman] 

 brought me glorious carnations. She sent me the 

 Stevenson letters a day or two [ago] and I have been 

 reading them ever since ; very entertaining. She brought 

 me also to read aloud a letter from Alex — There was 

 a passage which spoke of our relation to each other 



