174 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



sioned by his scientific expeditions have been published in 

 his biography and in a small degree reveal their intimacy, 

 but hers to him, which would have given an outline of her 

 daily life at this time, have been destroyed. A few letters, 

 however, which she wrote to Mrs. Curtis, who was abroad 

 in 1875 and 1876, convey an impression of her interests and 

 of the cheerfulness that the current of sadness running 

 through her wonted occupations did not sweep away. 



TO MRS. CHARLES P. CURTIS 



Cambridge, October 31, 1875 



WELL, my dear, there's one thing you can't do in 

 Europe. You can't hear Von Billow play, because 

 he's playing for us. I have never enjoyed piano 

 concerts so much; he plays so much good music, 

 his programmes are so dignified, so well distributed, 

 so that each piece tells by what precedes and by 

 what follows as well as by its own beauty. I suppose 

 Rubinstein has greater genius, but Von Billow 

 respects his art and his audience and is incapable 

 of lowering the one and insulting the other, as 

 Rubinstein certainly did in Boston. In Paris where 

 he must do his best, Pauline said he played divinely. 

 So he did sometimes here, but by no means always. 



Cambridge, November, 1875 



WHY am I not gifted like you for letter writing, 

 and I would make you laugh till you cry as I have 

 just done in reading your last letters to Sallie and 

 Mother. They all sound as if you were leading a 



