18 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



Mary or me? Do say me," and he answered, "Dear 

 Me," was very appropriate; and "Dear Me," we 

 younger ones used to call her. 



The earliest anecdote told of Elizabeth Gary chronicles 

 the nearest approach to a misdemeanor that is recorded 

 against her in the course of her eighty-five years. Her com- 

 panion on the downward path was her cousin, Lizzie Cabot 

 (afterward Mrs. Henry Lee), who was of about the same 

 age and with whom she was so identified that they were 

 called by the family "The Lizzies." Mrs. Curtis tells the 

 story. 



The Lizzies had been reading aloud a very inter- 

 esting novel and had arrived at such an intense point 

 that they agreed it would be impossible to sleep with 

 the doubt of the heroine's fate on their minds; so it 

 was arranged that Lizzie Gary was to return to her 

 uncle's house after tea for the end, and it was thought 

 more prudent in case of an interruption, that Lizzie 

 Cabot should be found in bed and so a little nearer 

 going to sleep. The plot of the book hung on a mis- 

 understanding which started between the hero and 

 heroine from the very church door after their mar- 

 riage, and their sorrows filled the first two volumes, 

 but in the third volume they met over the dying bed 

 of an old servant. As they bent to receive his last 

 words, one of Lady Mary's long curls caught on her 

 husband's coat button, their eyes met and at that 

 point the Lizzie in bed sprang up with a shriek of 

 excitement, old Nannie rushed from the nursery, my 

 Uncle Cabot from his library, and the Lizzie from 



