Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/218

Rh rarely joined in it to any considerable degree. If many forestieri chanced to drop in, he betook himself to a neighbouring café,—not absenting himself through aversion to such visitors, but in the fear lest his silent presence might weigh upon them.”

To complete the picture here given of the Ossoli interior, we should mention Horace, the youngest brother of Charles Sumner, who was a daily visitor in this abode of peace. Margaret says of him: “He has solid good in his mind and heart.... When I am ill, or in a hurry, he helps me like a brother. Ossoli and Sumner exchange some instruction in English and Italian."

This young man, remembered by those who knew him as most amiable and estimable, was abroad at this time for his health, and passed the winter in Florence. Mr. Hurlbut tells us that lie brought Margaret, every morning, his tribute of fresh wild flowers, and that every evening, “beside her seat in her little room, his mild, pure face was to be seen, bright with a quiet happiness," which was in part derived from her kindness and sympathy.

This brief chronicle of Margaret's last days in Italy would be incomplete without a few words concerning the enviablc position which she had made for herself in this country of her adoption.

The way in which the intelligence of her marriage was received by her country-people in Rome and Florence gives the strongest proof of the great esteem in which they were constrained to hold her. Equally honourable to her. was the friendship of Madame Arconati, a lady of high rank and higher merit,