asylum for the insane should she ever manifest a tendency to
marry a widower with children, she proceeded quite calmly and with
reason apparently unclouded, to fall in love with and marry Professor
Preston, notwithstanding his possession of seven charming and amiable
sons and daughters left over from a former congenial marriage. She
proved a most devoted mother to her large family, who returned her
affection in full measure. A volume of her poetry is dedicated to her
eldest stepdaughter who, after the death of Margaret, was her most
loving and appreciative biographer. To her great sorrow, one of the
sons was killed in battle.

The marriage was followed by a visit to "Oakland" on the James River,
the home of Major Preston's sister, Mrs. William Armstead Cocke, where
at first the ornately dignified style of living rather dazed the bride
accustomed as she had been to the simplicity of a home in which the
only luxury was in giving help to others. Colonel William C. Preston,
the eloquent South Carolina orator, met the "little red-headed Yankee"
with distinct aversion to her "want of style and presence," but was
soon heard to declare with enthusiastic admiration that she was "an
encyclopedia in small print." Here among ancestral trees she found
inspiration and in the society of her new sister she enjoyed the most
delightful soul companionship.

In the early years of her married life writing was laid aside while
she devoted herself to the care of her family, the entertainment of
the many visitors who came to the Preston house and the beautification
of her new home, finding plenty of space in the attractive house and
extensive grounds with their noble trees, orchard, garden and meadow
for the outlet of all her imagination. In this ideal home she was
living her peaceful and happy life when the bugle call destroyed the
serenity of the country. She suffered one of her greatest sorrows in
the difference of political opinion between her Northern father and
her Southern husband. The latter, holding that while secession was
unwise, coercion was tyranny, followed Virginia when she cast in her
lot with the seceding States. Dr. Junkin and his widowed youngest
daughter, Julia, returned to Philadelphia, while Colonel Preston
joined Stonewall Jackson's army.

Margaret Preston's worship of the muses was woven in with her devotion
to the household goddesses, and in her journal the receiving of the
first copy of her new volume of poems is