Page:Letters of Life.djvu/407

Rh that angelic sphere with which her own unselfish nature was accordant. I think with gratitude of the many kind offices they rendered me; but often felt anxious lest a deficiency of excitement should be a damper to their free spirits. My chief error was in aiming to consider them as real daughters. I have never yet discovered any chemical compound for the manufacture of kindred blood.

Recently I have dispensed with a permanent companion, and think the arrangement judicious.

Though mine usually expressed themselves happy in my society, I often feared they were not. My intellectual engagements requiring comparative sequestration for a part of every morning, made me uneasy lest their time should hang heavily. This interrupted my trains of thought, and abridged the availability of my labors. Their conversation was agreeable at the seasons allotted to its enjoyment, yet I sometimes imagined that the monthly stipend which I insisted should be theirs, might not be an equivalent for the privation of dwelling with an ancient, sedentary personage. Now, I can seclude myself without the inward reproof of discourtesy, and my time, which must be necessarily short on earth, and is much curtailed by interruptions, is made to bear with greater precision on what I strive to accomplish. Still, loving the young as I do, their frequent visits are prized, and I gather vitality from their smile.