THE HARVARD ANNEX 209 



graphs, and usually brought his lecture hour to a close 

 around Mrs. Goodwin's tea-table by the fireside; Professor 

 Norton, for whom Mrs. Agassiz's great regard, as well as 

 his for her, is apparent in letters quoted later, and with 

 whose view that the tendency of instruction at that time 

 was too exclusively toward the less imaginative studies, 

 she completely sympathized in spite of her strong bias 

 toward scientific pursuits; and Professor Child, for whom 

 her warm affection is expressed in the following letter 

 written many years later on hearing of his death. 



TO MISS GRACE NORTON 



Nahant, September 13, 1896 



. . . FOR myself this great break (for such it is even 

 for those who rarely met him) brings the strangest 

 revival of my youth, when I knew Child first or rather 

 when I saw him most frequently. I was often at my 

 sister Mary's for long visits, and then a day rarely 

 passed without my seeing him. It was a very interest- 

 ing time in my own life when I was just beginning to 

 know Cambridge, and Felton's house was a sort of 

 centre for the older professors ; into that pleasant cir- 

 cle Child brought such a bright young spirit. He can- 

 not have been much over twenty, for he was several 

 years younger than I. After his marriage and mine we 

 did not see so much of each other, and it is perhaps on 

 account of that interruption that my memory bridges 

 over the intervening time and makes these early days 

 stand out to me more vividly than the present. But 

 this cessation of frequent intercourse never lessened 

 our affection for each other. I can say that for myself, 



