nterrupted by a note from Mrs. K----. She says that she cannot
write of our lost friend yet, though she is less sad than she will be.
Mrs. F---- may like to hear of her arrival, should you be in
communication with our friend. She is the type of youth in age.

'I often converse with Miss S----, a judicious friend of the W----s,
about what is likely to await them. She would not succeed here as
well as where she was a novelty. The character of our climate this
year has been injurious to the respiratory organs; but I hope still to
serve them.

'I have just missed Dale Owen, with whom I wished to have conversed on
spiritualism. {150} Harris is lecturing here on religion. I do not
hear him praised.

'People are looking for helps to believe, everywhere but in life,--in
music, in architecture, in antiquity, in ceremony; and upon all these
is written, "Thou shalt not believe." At least, if this be faith,
happier the unbeliever. I am willing to see through that materialism;
but, if I am to rest there, I would rend the veil.

'June 1.

'The day of the packet's sailing. I shall hope to be visited by you
here. The best flowers sent me have been placed in your little vases,
giving life to the remembrance of you, though not, like them, to pass
away.

'Ever yours,

'A. I. NOEL BYRON.'

Shortly after, I was in England again, and had one more opportunity of
resuming our personal intercourse. The first time that I called on Lady
Byron, I saw her in one of those periods of utter physical exhaustion to
which she was subject on account of the constant pressure of cares beyond
her strength. All who knew her will testify, that, in a state of health
which would lead most persons to become helpless absorbents of service
from others, she was assuming burdens, and making outlays of her vital
powers in acts of love and service, with a generosity that often reduced
her to utter exhaustion. But none who knew or loved her ever
misinterpreted the coldness of those seasons of exhaustion. We knew that
it was not the spirit that was chilled, but only the frail mortal
tabernacle. When I called on her at this time, she could not see me at
first; and when, at last, she came, it was evident that she was in a
state of utter prostration. Her hands were like ice; her face