[Boston—Friday, 13 April 1866]
Friday. Breakfasted with “Tom” Appleton. Saw a lovely Eastman Johnson, girl gathering water-lilies and much beside which was beautiful. He read us the last poem of André Chénier which I had never seen before, written a few moments before execution.
Jamie asked him one day if he was acquainted with a large silent man the father of an overgrown young girl—“Perfectly! Father of Lump! Silent!—Worship such in Asia!”
Went out to R.H. Dana Jr’s to pass the evening. Mr Dana talked delightfully and recalled that passage in Burke where the magnificent entertainments of Warren Hastings are described, which combined “the vivid fascinations of Europe with the torpid blandishments of Asia.”
