lancing sprite of a girl, frightening her friends by her daring and
venturous horseback riding; gravitating by instinct to offer some
generous, tender aid to the sick, the destitute, or the helpless; the
life and light of gay dinners and of social evenings; working from six
in the morning till night in her studio, "with an absence of
pretension," says Mrs. Browning, "and simplicity of manners which accord
rather with the childish dimples in her rosy cheeks than with her broad
forehead and high aims," had the magic gift that merged her visitors and
patrons into enthusiastic friends; and Mrs. Browning has chronicled the
pretty scene when Lady Marion Alford, the daughter of the Earl of
Northumberland, knelt before the girl artist and slipped on her finger
a ring--a precious ruby set with diamonds--as a token of her devotion.
Reading Miss Hosmer's life still further backward, the reader is
transported, as if on some magic carpet, to St. Louis, in the United
States, where a noble and lofty man, Hon. Wayman Crow,--a generous
friend, a liberal patron of the arts, a man of the most refined tastes
and culture, whose great qualities were always used in high
service,--first aided Miss Hosmer to the preliminary studies in her art,
and whose accomplished and lovely daughters (now Mrs. Lucien Carr of
Boston, Mrs. Edwin Cushman of Newport and Rome, and Mrs. Emmons of
Leamington, England) were as a trio of sisters to the young artist. And
"the flowing conditions of life" bear on this lifelong friendship until
a fair young girl, Elise (the daughter of Mrs. Emmons), catches up this
sweet tie and as an accomplished and lovely young woman in Roman
society, when these "flowing conditions" had come down even into the
season of 1906-7, Miss Emmons cherished the fame of Harriet Hosmer and
enjoyed the privilege of a constant correspondence with the
distinguished artist. So the past links itself again with the present;
and who can tell where any story in life begins or ends in the constant
evolutionary progress?

Miss Hosmer's work attracted wide attention. Her majestic statue of
"Zenobia;" the winsome "Puck;" the impressive statue of "Beatrice
Cenci," representing her as she lay in her cell in Castel San Angelo the
night before her execution,--these and other works of hers are of an
interesting character and will hold their permanent rank in sculpture.

Were all the muses present at the christening of William Wetmore
Story--sculptor, musician,