Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/55

Rh was believed by penetrating — that is, feminine — observers that the less facile ringlets for which Margaret Fuller's hair was kept in unsightly curl-papers all the morning were due to a hopeless emulation of her lovely friend. It was, in short, Madame de Staël and Madame Récamier in a school-room. At any rate, it is very probable that the early intimacy with these beautiful and attractive maidens had much to do with creating in Margaret Fuller that strong admiration for personal charms — amounting almost to envy, but never to ungenerous jealousy — which marked her life-time.

How ardent and how deep were her emotions towards these early friends can best be seen from this passage, which appears without date in her diary: —

“I loved —— for a time with as much passion as I was then strong enough to feel. Her face was always gleaming before me, her voice was echoing in my ear, all poetic thoughts clustered round the dear image. This love was for me a key which unlocked many a treasure which I still possess; it was the carbuncle (emblematic gem!) which cast light into many of the darkest corners of human nature. She loved me, too, though not so much, because her nature was ‘less high, less grave, less large, less deep;’ but she loved more tenderly, less passionately. She loved me, for I well remember her suffering when she first could feel my faults, and knew one part of the exquisite veil rent away.”