Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/42

24 ticed an hour on the piano, breakfasted at seven, read Sismondi’s “European Literature” in French till eight, then Brown’s “Philosophy ” till half past nine, then went to school for Greek at twelve, then practiced again till dinner. After the early dinner she read two hours in Italian, then walked or rode; and in the evening played, sang, and retired at eleven to write in her diary. This, be it observed, was at the very season when girls of fifteen or sixteen are, in these days, on their way to the seashore or the mountains. The school where she recited Greek was a private institution of high character in Cambridgeport, known familiarly as the “C. P. P. G. S.,” or “Cambridge Port Private Grammar School,” a sort of academy, kept at that time by Mr. Perkins, a graduate of Yale College. It was so excellent that it drew many pupils from what was then called Old Cambridge, — now Harvard Square, — then quite distinct from “the Port,” and not especially disposed to go to it for instruction. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of Margaret Fuller's fellow pupils, as were John Holmes, his younger brother, and Richard Henry Dana. From those who were her associates in this school, it is possible to obtain a very distinct impression of her as she then appeared.

She came to school for these Greek recitations only, and was wont to walk in with that peculiar carriage of the head and those half-shut eyelids which have been so often described; and which