In Othello's predicament--Gaetano--Crystals and snail-shells--Broad, flagstone pavements--Fishing-rods and blow-pipes--Ghostly yarns--Conservative effects of genius--An ideal bust and a living one--The enigma of spiritualism--A difficult combination to overthrow--The dream-child and the Philistine--Dashing and plunging this way and that--Teresa screamed for mercy--Grapes and figs and ghostly voices--My father would have settled there--Kirkup the necromancer--A miraculous birth--A four-year-old medium--The mysterious touch--An indescribable horror--Not even a bone of her was left--Providence takes very long views XIX Burnt Sienna--The Aquila Nera--A grand, noble, gentle creature--The most beautiful woman in the world--Better friends than ever--A shadow brooded--Boys are whole-souled creatures--Franklin Pierce--Miriam, Hilda, Kenyon, Donatello--The historian of the Netherlands--When New England makes a man--The spell of Trevi--An accession of mishaps--My father's mustache--Three steps of stone, the fourth, death--Havre, Redcar, Bath, London, Liverpool ILLUSTRATIONS NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (From a crayon drawing by Samuel Rowse) BIRTHPLACE OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE AT SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS HERMAN MELVILLE JAMES T. FIELDS THE WAYSIDE (Showing Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife) EDWIN P. WHIPPLE JAMES T. FIELDS, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, AND WILLIAM D. TICKNOR RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES ROBERT BROWNING FRANCIS BANNOCH REV. WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING, 1855 MARIA MITCHELL WILLIAM WETMORE STORY PENCIL SKETCHES IN ITALY, BY MRS. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE THE MARBLE FAUN HIRAM POWERS INTRODUCTION Inheritance of friendships--Gracious giants--My own good fortune--My father the central figure--What did his gift to me cost him?--A revelation in Colorado--Privileges make difficulties--Lights and shadows of memory--An informal narrative--Contrast between my father's life and mine.