Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/47

Rh be accepted, and suggested what she should wear; did she receive company at home, he made out the list; and when the evening came, he and his daughter received them: the mother only casually appearing, a shy and dignified figure in the background. At a later period, after his death, Margaret Fuller and her mother became all-in-all to each other, but at this early period the tie between them, though affectionate, was not intimate; for almost all purposes of direction and guidance she was her father’s child.

Margaret Fuller’s personal appearance at this early period has been described by several of her biographers; but one hears very different accounts of it from different quarters, the least flattering being those given by her own sex. The inexorable memory of a certain venerable Cambridge lady recalls her graphically as she appeared at the ball given by her father to President Adams; a young girl of sixteen with a very plain face, half-shut eyes, and hair curled all over her head; she was laced so tightly, my informant declares, by reason of stoutness, that she had to hold her arms back as if they were pinioned; she was dressed in a badly-cut, low-necked pink silk, with white muslin over it; and she danced quadrilles very awkwardly, being withal so near-sighted that she could hardly see her partner. On the other hand, it is maintained that she had in childhood something of her mother’s peculiar beauty of complexion, this being, however, spoiled at twelve years old