are's plays. My grandmother was eleven or twelve years
older than her husband, so my grandfather did most of the marketing,
and I understand it used to be quite a sight on Saturday morning to
see the two old gentlemen, Mr. David and Mr. Melville Bell, going to
market with baskets over their arms. Notwithstanding all their
arguments, they were very devoted to each other.

Miss Aileen Bell was very musical and was one of the founders of the
Friday Morning Music Club and other musical clubs. She was the
organist and choir leader in Christ Church, Georgetown. She was
always very punctilious in her attendance and I remember her talking
about her church.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bell and their family also used to come out on
Sundays to see their parents, but they usually came to supper. The
family as a whole were very devoted. Mr. Chichester Bell, you may
recall, was the co-inventor with my father and Mr. Tainter of the
phonograph. The wax records that are used today are their invention
and their company, the Columbia Phonograph Company, operated under
their patents.

After my grandfather's death, the house came into my father's
possession, and he gave it to the American Association to Promote
the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, now called the Volta Speech
Association. It was used for a time as the home of the
Superintendent. My father still continued to use his laboratory.
Some years later, when the Association needed money, it was sold and
the proceeds used to carry on the work of the Association. My father
was very much interested in the work of the Volta Bureau and one
winter, when my mother was away, he lived at the Volta Bureau,
compiling some of his scientific data. He had a way when he became
absorbed in work of forgetting to eat or sleep, and the person that
brought his dinner tray would often find his luncheon tray
untouched.

[Illustration: JOHN THRELKELD]

Just north of the convent grounds is the site of the estate of Berleith,
which had been built by Henry Threlkeld. He had, in 1751, married Mrs.
Mary Hopkins, a daughter of Dr. Gustavus Brown of Maryland, and widow of
Reverend Matthew Hopkins. Henry Threlkeld died in 1781, his widow in
1801. Their one child, John, was married in 1787 to Elizabeth Ridgely,
of Maryland. Two years before his marriage he visited England, one
object of his trip be