etters to various magazines under the signature
of "The Lorgnette," which were subsequently republished as a volume
bearing the same title.

N. P. Willis was another literary genius of the same period whom I had
the pleasure of knowing. He was cordially welcomed into the social world
of New York; but, unfortunately for his popularity, he wrote a prose
effusion entitled, "Those Ungrateful Blidgimses," which was generally
recognized as a direct attack upon two old ladies who were held in high
esteem in New York. It was known to many persons that he had had a
misunderstanding with them and that he had employed this manner of
taking his revenge. New York society frowned upon what was generally
considered his ungallant conduct, and for many years the doors of some
of the most prominent houses in the city were closed against him. As I
remember reading his story at the time, I thought its title was but a
poor disguise, as the sisters were named Bridgens, the christian name of
one of them being Cornelia. This name was distorted into "Crinny," who,
by the way, was a woman of decided ability. It was against her that the
author's animosity was chiefly directed. It seems that the Misses
Bridgens and Mr. Willis chanced to be sojourning at the same time in
Rome, where the scene of his narrative is laid. Miss Crinny was a
sufferer from an attack of Roman fever and, under these dire
circumstances, Mr. Willis represents himself as her attendant, and in
this capacity refuses to condone the peculiarities of the poor old
lady's sick-room. His patience in gratifying her morbid fancies is
graphically described in a vein of ridicule and he tells how by the hour
he threaded what he terms her "imaginary locks." He also dwells at
length upon her conversational powers and likens her tongue to the
elasticity of an eel's tail, which would wag if it were skinned and
fried. Charles Dudley Warner has described this writing of Mr. Willis as
"funny but wicked"; it was more than that--it was cruel! Willis made
another reference to the two sisters in his "Earnest Clay" where he
speaks of "two abominable old maids by the names of Buggins and
Blidgins, representing the _scan. mag._ of Florence."

The New York public was in no hurry to reopen its doors to Mr. Willis;
indeed, it was not until after his marriage to Miss Cornelia Grinnell,
his second wife, that he was again kindly received. I recall with much
pleasure a visit I made at Mrs. Winfield Scott's in