JOHN E. Le CONTE. 309 
securely. Unluckily, the man who came at a late hour with 
the iced cream for the evening’s repast, opened this very 
cellar, and out bounded every cat, some six or eight of them 
trotting off at once for the drawing-room. On the appearing 
of two or three of them at the door, Mrs. Baird, without a 
cry, arose and simply turned her face to the wall, while Mrs. 
Holbrook and others, knowing her idiosyneracy, drove them 
forth again, and they were speedily re-imprisoned for the 
night. Our friend, we know, did not recover from the nervous 
Shock during the whole evening, but was kind enough to 
make light of the affair, and to be as cheerful during the 
remainder of the evening, as if nothing had occurred to dis- 
compose or terrify her. Let no one make light of Mrs. 
Baird’s peculiar horror. A brave king of France there was, 
l have forgotten which one, who would shriek wildly, *Un 
chat! un chat!” and fly from the room, if by anyone's neg- 
lect a eat made its appearance. 
A pathetic indication of Major Le Conte's depth and tender- 
ness of soul was his life-long silent devotion to the memory 
of her who for only four early happy years had been his wife. 
He had, in her declining health, taken her southward one 
autumn, and she had died and he had buried her in the ceme- 
tery of the Episcopal Chureh at Norfolk, Virginia. This had 
happened in the year 1825; and, I believe that every year 
thereafter, except when iliness made it impossible, he made, 
though few knew it, a lonely pilgrimage to the grave. No 
one was ever asked to go with him; not her only living 
child, his son. Once, when I was with him in Norfolk, I 
asked, unaware of all the depth of his feeling, that he would 
show me the spot where her grave was. He replied quietly : 
* [ will direet you how to find it." 
Mr. Sharswood in his Necrology, to which reference has 
before been made, having disclaimed all knowledge of his 
friend's early history, adds, in the same paragraph: ‘Nor 
do I know at what period of life or under what influence he 
assumed the faith of the Holy Catholie Church." 
A wave of the Tractarian Movement which, between 1840 
