Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/420

 attendant at old Christ Church, hard by the School, and had a steady, unobtrusive interest in parish affairs. He was a keen judge of men. His friends once made were always kept. For them was reserved the play of his delightful wit, and the affection of his tender, almost feminine, nature. He was devotedly fond of children. He enjoyed the society of ladies, though never a “ladies’ man.” September 22, 1880, he married Margaret Ellen Huson, the beautiful and spirited daughter of an Episcopal clergyman (deceased), at Coldwater, Michigan. He first met her while she and her mother were visiting in Cambridge the previous year. Thereafter he abandoned his somewhat cheerless life in a boarding-house, and took up his residence on Quincy Street. Mrs. Huson also made her home there, and a more lovely and tranquil household would be far to seek.

It may be doubted, indeed, whether his last years were not his happiest. Though the light of the body was failing him, the brilliancy of his wonderful mind seemed only to increase. Always full of intellectual interests, he now had leisure to speculate on the deepest legal questions and to systematize them to his satisfaction. True friends cheered him. Ardent admirers sat at his feet.