[Boston—Wednesday, 18 April 1866]
Wednesday. Read two cantos of the “Purgatorio” before breakfast—the analysis of love.
Went to Freedmen’s meeting at Mrs Loring’s;—letters read describing the condition of the colored people when left to themselves, very promising and intensely interesting.
Crocuses fully up—bees on the weeping ash in the public garden—interview with Sarah who wishes us to go away with mother & herself. We think of our solitude knowing we could not enjoy if we did not know they were happy, yet it requires some resolution to give up those few lovely days of retirement, all that the year holds for us. But still sweeter will be the consciousness of happiness conferred. I think we shall go with them.
Laura left us Saturday P.M. to pass Sunday in Lexington. Her visit was a source of real pleasure, she was rested and refreshed by it. How pretty it was to see how continually her thought reverted to little Laura. She longed to have the dear little thing near her. Sarah’s death has made havoc in her heart. Theodore’s death she could understand there was much to make sweet the bitterness of parting with him, but Sarah—she cannot learn to bear it. She saw the whole working of the terrible illness—she alone—and in her quiet moments the memory is almost more than she can endure. Poor child! I cannot help her in this grief, nor any, but the One.
