Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/158

120 It was her final effort, a serious and praiseworthy effort, to reconcile her husband to regular living and social obligations. She had no light task in holding to right conduct her handsome, wayward, uncouth husband, whose nature craved the flesh-pots, the gauds and baubles of sentimentalism, the specious glamour of notoriety, and over whom “sweetness and light” had but little sway.

With a loyal devotion Mrs. Patterson strove to fulfil her duty as a wife, never betraying what her gentler nature suffered in outraged pride, wounded sensibility, or humiliated aspiration. This man was her husband, she threw the cloak of love over his shortcomings and sought to interest and lead him into the highest associations with which he could be affiliated. During the months which followed, as they were not householders and she had no home duties, she occupied herself with writing, many of her poems and prose articles appearing in the Lynn papers. She attended church and became acquainted with some of the excellent old families of the city, of which friendships some interesting associations continued throughout a long period of her life.

Mrs. Patterson readily made friends whose attachment was strong. Her social success was easy, and she quickly gained a place of high regard among the most reserved. Her immediate conquest of strangers was through her indefinable charm which among the ruggeder qualities of both men and women came like the gentle graciousness of a Southerner. Society in New England cities has been