She preceded the professor upstairs, and going down the hall she stopped at each door, opened it, permitted him to perceive its delightful fitness for his purpose, then quietly closed the door, observing, “You cannot have that.” The professorial eyes glanced restlessly around the fine old-fashioned points of the mansion, marked the wooden carvings, the air of opulent respectability in the past, which corresponds in New England to the impression of ancient nobility in Old England, and wondered if he were not to be permitted to have a room at all. The old lady at length opened the door of the southeast corner room in the second story; and while the guest looked wistfully in and awaited the customary “You cannot have that,” he was agreeably surprised by hearing that he might have it. The room was upon the front of the house and overlooked the meadows to the river. It had an atmosphere of fascinating repose, in which the young man at once felt at home. “This,” said the lady, “was Washington’s chamber.” Here Longfellow lived for the rest of his life. He was merely a lodger in one of the rooms until he married the second time, six years after first going there. On his marriage his wife’s father, Mr. Nathan Appleton, who was a rich old gentleman, bought the house and gave it to him as a wedding present, and also gave him the lot opposite, so that no one should ever build a house that would shut off his view of the river Charles. It was the view from the front of this house that inspired the poet to write that beautiful poem, “To the River Charles.” How sweet and suggestive the opening verses, which note that he wrote the poem four years after he moved into the Craigie House! River! that in silence windest Through the meadows, bright and free, Till at length thy rest thou findest In the bosom of the sea! Four long years of mingled feeling, Half in rest, and half in strife, I have seen thy waters stealing Onward, like the stream of life. Thou hast taught me, Silent River! Many a lesson, deep and long; Thou hast been a generous giver; I can give thee but a song. It may be said that Joseph Worcester, who wrote Worcester’s Dictionary, had once lived in this house, and Miss Sally Lowell, an aunt of James Russell Lowell, as well as Jared Sparks, who wrote a great life of Washington and was president of Harvard College. Mr. Sparks and Edward Everett both brought their wives there when they were married. It seemed that Longfellow was always getting into famous houses. When he was at Bowdoin College he lived in the house in which “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was afterward written. It is said that Talleyrand, the famous French diplomat, and the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria’s father, had been entertained at dinner at the Craigie House when it belonged to the original owner, Colonel John Vassal. CHAPTER IX THE FIVE OF CLUBS