Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and JournalsMitchell, Maria
History
Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals
Mitchell, Maria
Astronomers -- United States -- Biography; Mitchell, Maria, 1818-1889; Women astronomers -- United States -- Biography
"We arrived in Rome in the evening. Mrs. H. was somewhat of an invalid,
and Mr. Hawthorne tried in vain to make the servant understand that she
must have a fire in her room. He spoke no word of French, German, or
Italian, but he said emphatically, 'Make a fire in Mrs. Hawthorne's
room.' Worn out with his efforts, he turned to me and said, 'Do, Miss
Mitchell, tell the servant what I want; your French is excellent!
Englishmen and Frenchmen understand it equally well.' So I said in
execrable French, 'Make a fire,' and pointed to the grate; of course the
gesture was understood.
"Mr. Hawthorne was minutely and scrupulously honest; I should say that
he was a rigid temperance man. Once I heard Mrs. Hawthorne say to the
clerk, 'Send some brandy to Mr. Hawthorne at once.' We were six in the
party. When I paid my bill I heard Mr. Hawthorne say to Miss S., the
teacher, who took all the business cares, 'Don't let Miss Mitchell pay
for one-sixth of my brandy.'
"So if we ordered tea for five, and six partook of it, he called the
waiter and said, 'Six have partaken of the tea, although there was no
tea added; to the amount.'
"I told Mr. Hawthorne that a friend of mine, Miss W., desired very much
to see him, as she admired him very much. He said, 'Don't let her see
me, let her keep her little lamp burning.'
"He was a sad man; I could never tell why. I never could get at anything
of his religious views.
"He was wonderfully blest in his family. Mrs. Hawthorne almost
worshipped him. She was of a very serious and religious turn of mind.
"I dined with them the day that Una was sixteen years old. We drank her
health in cold water. Mr. Hawthorne said, 'May you live happily, and be
ready to go when you must.'
"He joined in the family talk very pleasantly. One evening we made up a
story. One said, 'A party was in Rome;' another said, 'It was a pleasant
day;' another said, 'They took a walk.' It came to Hawthorne's turn, and
he said, 'Do put in an incident;' so Rosa said, 'Then a bear jumped from
the top of St. Peter's!' The story went no further.
"I was with the family when they first went to St. Peter's. Hawthorne
turned away saying, 'The St. Peter's of my imagination was better.'
"I think he could not have been well, he was so very inactive. If he
walked out he took Rosa, then a child of six, with him. He once came
with her to my room, but he seemed tired from the ascent of the stairs.
I was on the fifth floor.
"I have been surprised to see that he made severe personal remarks in
his journal, for in the three months that I knew him I never heard an
unkind word; he was always courteous, gentle, and retiring. Mrs.
Hawthorne said she took a wifely pride in his having no small vices. Mr.
Hawthorne said to Miss S., 'I have yet to find the first fault in Mrs.
Hawthorne.'
"One day Mrs. Hawthorne came to my room, held up an inkstand, and said,
'The new book will be begun to-night.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account