390 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



among the Coral islands of the Southern Pacific he has 

 at last taken a vacation which he has greatly enjoyed. 

 Now he is coming home for his Newport summer. 



I hear only dimly from the world outside; but I 

 have tidings now and then of Radcliffe and its affairs 

 from Miss Irwin and from our President — Mr. 

 Briggs, one of the faculty. He is a charming man and 

 a great favorite with the students. When I remember 

 our small beginnings — without buildings or books or 

 apparatus which makes the outfit of an educational in- 

 stitution, I can hardly believe that we are as it were 

 anchored against the whole teaching force of Harvard. 

 But I must not run on. 



Hoping that I may have the happiness of seeing you 

 both as the warm weather sets us free, 

 Your loving old friend, 



E. C. Agassiz 



"The carriage is just about to arrive," she wrote to an- 

 other friend a few weeks later, " in order to take this old 

 lady to her summer residence on Arlington Heights. I am 

 almost reconciled to leaving Nahant for that beautiful 

 summit, where stretches of woodland alternate with dis- 

 tant towns and villages, lost at last in our big Boston and 

 its far away harbor; and then comes night, crowned with 

 the constellations and sometimes with the morning or 

 the evening stars." 



One of the advantages of Arlington Heights was its 

 accessibility to Boston, so that Mrs. Agassiz was not de- 

 prived of the visits from step-children and friends, which 

 were a great source of pleasure. No account of these years 



