better satisfied with the page I have turned in it than I shall if
I must still toil on. A noble career is yet before me, if I can be
unimpeded by cares. I have given almost all my young energies to
personal relations; but at present I feel inclined to impel the general
stream of thought. Let my nearest friends also wish that I should now
take share in more public life."

* * * * *

The opening now found for Margaret in New York, though fortunate, was by
no means fortuitous. She had herself prepared the way thereunto by her
good work in the "Dial." In that cheerless editorial seat she may
sometimes, like the Lady of Shalott, have sighed to see Sir Lancelot
ride careless by, or with the spirit of an unrecognized prophet she may
have exclaimed, "Who hath believed our report?" But her word had found
one who could hear it to some purpose.

Mr. Greeley had been, from the first, a reader of this periodical, and
had recognized the fresh thought and new culture which gave it
character. His attention was first drawn to Margaret by an essay of
hers, published in the July number of 1843, and entitled "The Great
Lawsuit,--Man _versus_ Men, Woman _versus_ Women." This essay, which at
a later date expanded into the volume known as "Woman in the Nineteenth
Century," struck Mr. Greeley as "the production of an original,
vigorous, and earnest mind." Margaret's "Summer on the Lakes" appeared
also in the "Dial" somewhat later, and was considered by Mr. Greeley as
"unequalled, especially in its pictures of the prairies and of the
sunnier aspects of pioneer life." Convinced of the literary ability of
the writer, he gave ear to a suggestion of Mrs. Greeley, and, in
accordance with her wishes and with his own judgment, extended to her
the invitation already spoken of as accepted.

This invitation, and the arrangement to which it led, admitted Margaret
not only to the columns of the "Tribune," but also to the home of its
editor, in which she continued to reside during the period of her
connection with the paper. This home was in a spacious, old-fashioned
house on the banks of the East River, completely secluded by the
adjacent trees and garden, but within easy reach of New York by car and
omnibus. Margaret came there in December, 1844, and was at once struck
with the beauty of the scene and charmed with the aspect of the
antiquated dwelling, which had once, no doubt, been the villa of some
magnate of old New