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218 ion; her presence lent to his home its greatest charm, and her love and sympathy were his greatest solace in the troubles which clouded the evening of his life." Thomas Jefferson, going, a lonely widower, on his first mission to France, took with him his little girl, "Patsy," as he lovingly called her, and while she was placed in a convent his regular and constant visits to her there brought all the comfort and happiness of life to both of them. She was only ten years old at the time of her mother's death in 1782, but her own sorrow was almost forgotten in the contemplation which was constantly before her of that greater sorrow of her father. She understood it when, one night, she entered her father's room, and found him giving away to a paroxysm of weeping. But her father would not allow her young life to be shrouded in gloom., and later on, when she was sixteen, she entered with him the world of Paris, and was introduced into the brilliant court of Louis XVI. In spite of her youth and her modest, retiring disposition, she was considered a remarkable young woman. She did credit to the excellent education she had received. She was found to be a good elocutionist, an accomplished musician, and one well versed in matters historical. She was not beautiful (and perhaps it is a relief to learn that she was not, after hearing about so many dames and daughters of a by-gone day whose wondrous fairness is forever being told in story and rehearsed in song), but she is reputed to have been "tall and stately" and to have had an interesting rather than a pretty face. Hints of Miss Patsy's good times and of the interesting people whom she met when she was a debutante in the Paris world have come down to us. We read of her acquaintance with the gay and gallant Marquis de La Fayette, who never chanced to meet the daughter of Thomas Jefferson without pausing to exchange a few merry words with her; and of her enthusiastic admiration for Madame de Stael, whom she saw very often in society, and