SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE. 219 



Inman, and other prominent artists were competi- 

 tors in the application for this picture, to receive 

 the commission was indeed an honor. 



Morse now wrote cheerfully to his wife : " When 

 I consider how wonderfully things are working for 

 the promotion of the great and long desired event, 

 that of being constantly with my dear family, 

 all unpleasant feelings are absorbed in this joyful 

 anticipation, and I look forward to the spring of 

 the year with delightful prospects of seeing my 

 dear family permanently settled with me in our 

 own hired house here." 



February 8, 1825, he wrote his wife that he had 

 met Lafayette, " the man whose beloved name has 

 rung from one end of this continent to the other, 

 whom all flock to see, whom all delight to 

 honor." 



That very day a letter was penned him, not this 

 time by the wife, but by his father. " My affection- 

 ately beloved son : Mysterious are the ways of 

 Providence. My heart is in pain and deeply sor- 

 rowful, while I announce to you the sudden and 

 unexpected death of your dear and deservedly 

 loved wife. Her death proved to be an affection of 

 the heart, incurable had it been known. ... I 

 wrote you yesterday that she was convalescent. So 

 she then appeared and so the doctor pronounced. 

 She was up about five o'clock yesterday afternoon, 

 to have her bed made, as usual ; was unusually 

 cheerful and social ; spoke of the pleasure of being 

 with her dear husband in New York ere long; 



