Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/200

182 been as gentle, as dull, and as silent as the most fussy old bachelor could desire his housekeeper to be. You said, however, I could come and live there, if I had not a mind to talk, so I am not afraid, but will come, hoping there may be a flow after this ebb, which has almost restored the health of your affectionate “” &emsp;

Again, this extract from a letter to Mr. Emerson (August 10, 1842) illustrates the same point. It seems that Professor Farrar and his wife were to have taken a journey, in which case Margaret Fuller would have remained in their house at Cambridge, a plan that would have “insured several weeks of stillness and solitude” for her; she being “tired to death of dissipation.” This failing, she expresses willingness to go to Concord, but, should that be inconvenient, she can go to Brook Farm, as the next best medicine: —

“They will give me a room at Brook Farm, if I wish, let me do as I please, and I think if I went there to stay I could keep by myself, and employ myself, if there is any force in my mind. Beside, I will not give up seeing you. If you do not want me to stay in this unlimited fashion I will come for two or three days, on a visit technically speaking. But I want to know beforehand which it shall be, for, if I come to stay, I shall bring my paper, etc., but if not I shall leave them here, write to Brook Farm to engage my room, and go there so soon as I have seen you satisfactorily.”

However she might dream of solitude, she could