, I rose and left the room rather rapidly; and when my name was
called and my fizzling fireworks expected, I was walking up Fifth
Avenue, thinking about her and her life-work. The whole experience was
a revelation. I had never met such a woman. No affectation, nor
pedantry, nor mannishness to mar the effect. It was in part the
humiliating contrast between her soul-stirring words and my silly
little society effort that drove me from the place, but all petty
egotism vanished before the wish to be of real use to others with
which her earnestness had inspired me.

One lady told me that after hearing her she felt she could go out and
be a praying band all by herself. Indeed she was

A noble woman, true and pure,
Who in the little while she stayed,
Wrought works that shall endure.

She was asked who she would prefer to write a sketch of her and her
work and she honoured me by giving me that great pleasure. The book
appeared in 1883, entitled _Our Famous Women_.

Once when Miss Willard was in Boston with Lady Henry Somerset and Anna
Gordon, I was delighted by a letter from Frances saying that Lady
Henry wanted to know me and could I lunch with them soon at the
Abbottsford. I accepted joyously, but next morning's mail brought this
depressing decision: "Dear Kate, we have decided that there will be
more meat in going to you. When can we come?" I was hardly settled in
my house of the Abandoned Farm. There was no furnace in the house,
only two servants with me. And it would be impossible to entertain
those friends properly in the dead of the winter, and I nearly ready
to leave for a milder clime. So I told them the stern facts and lost a
rare treat.

This is the end of Miss Willard's good-bye letter to me when returning
to England with Lady Henry:

Hoping to see you on my return, and hereby soliciting an
exchange of photographs between you and Lady Henry and me,

I am ever and as ever
Yours,
FRANCES WILLARD.

While at Mrs. Smith's home in Germantown, both she and Miss Willard
urged me to sign a Temperance Pledge that lay on the table in the
library. I would have accepted almost anything either of those good
friends presented for my attention. So after thinking seriously I
signed. But after going to my room I felt sure that I could never keep
that pledge. So