62 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
it to me.” As we left the cottage, Cécile said, “You 
will not fail to send the lace,” and the woman an- 
swered with so much dignity, “We are very poor, but 
we are also honest.” Afterwards we went to other 
cottages where they all looked excessively poor, but 
at the same time with a sort of self-respect and pro- 
priety that I could not help admiring in the midst of 
so much poverty. We saw one poor woman, a lace 
worker, that had twelve children, two of whom were 
paralyzed; but on the wall of her poor little room hung 
her white wedding wreath, framed, and kept as a pre- 
cious souvenir of younger days. I feel that in going 
about with Swiss people I get a glimpse into Swiss life 
that strangers, travelling through the country as for- 
eigners, do not often have. 
TO MRS. THOMAS G. CARY 
I write you of everything that happens and some- 
times I am so surrounded with new things and new 
people that all that has passed at home seems to me 
like some dim and distant dream. Perhaps for that 
very reason when it comes upon me like truth it over- 
whelms me even more than if I were at home. Still 
you must think of meas having a great deal of pleas- 
ure. It is a happiness such as I have seldom had in 
my life to see Agassiz united to all his relations and 
friends again, and they are so fond of him, so happy 
in having him that I cannot but fully sympathize 
with him and have my share too of happiness. 
The “overwhelming” event to which Mrs. Agassiz 
