CHANGED CONDITIONS 175 



pleasant life. It is delightful to hear and to think 



of happy people. ... I have to remind myself how 



intensely happy I have been, and then the hope 



comes that. what has been will be. I am glad of one 



thing, I knew how happy I was every day and 



hour had its full value, and looking back I have a 



sense of possession that nothing can take from me. 



What I have had is mine. Alex keeps pretty well thus 



far but will go off somewhere in February, I think. 



I miss him desperately when he goes, for Alex is to 



me a very companionable man. He tells me a great 



deal of his scientific life and work, of his plans for 



the Museum, etc., and that keeps me still a little 



in the same intellectual atmosphere to which I am 



accustomed. We dine at six coffee after; then I 



read to the boys for an hour or more; before nine 



they are in bed, and then Alex and I have a cup 



of tea destructive and dangerous to the nerves, 



but very pleasant, and then is our time for talk, 



and if Alex is writing anything, he often reads it to 



me, and we discuss it together. All this is a real 



source of happiness, and you must not think I do 



not appreciate it. I do, and constantly think how 



blessed I am in my children and grandchildren. 



But with all his activity and Alex's life is crowded 



with work from morning to night it is such a 



broken life. You see it in his look whenever his face 



is quiet and thoughtful at least, I do, knowing his 



expression so well. The children are all well Ro- 



dolphe enchanting and developing in intelligence 



wonderfully. 





