8 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
out of town at the time, that he had met Miss Perkins at 
a tea-party and had heard her sing. “‘I can’t tell you how 
charmed I was with her voice (which is really divine),”’ he 
continues, “with her conversation, with her manners, — 
indeed I thought her possessed of every quality which man 
could possibly wish for in woman. Then her little laugh is 
killing.” “I last saw her at the ball given by herself,” he 
writes later, “where she walked among her friends, impart- 
ing pleasure and gayety to all the young and cheerfulness 
to those of the ‘matured.’ The next morning I called to say 
Adieu jusqu’au revoir! She came down dressed in a red 
crape, with a handkerchief round her neck; looked all 
goodness and benignity as usual; gave me her hand, and I 
took my leave, saying to myself, ‘What a happy fellow is 
this brother of mine!” The sparkling wit and vivacity of 
her youth characterized Mary Perkins throughout her life 
no less than her “goodness and benignity,” and her cheer- 
fulness and affectionate sympathy were among the traits 
that always endeared her to her friends and were trans- 
mitted by her to her children. 
It is evident that as in generation after generation of the 
Cary and Perkins families during two hundred years these 
distinctive personalities developed, there was accumulating 
for their descendants a heritage of elevated moral ideals, 
refinement of taste, executive ability and family affection 
— qualities that continued to live in Mrs. Agassiz. How 
fine a strain in her character she also inherited directly 
from her parents, especially from her father, we shall see as 
we follow the story of her life. 
