[Boston—Thursday, 20 April 1876]
Thursday was Fast Day and we went to Manchester. We found our house perfectly sound and dry. There was hardly any perceptible dust, in short I should not have thought it quite possible to shut up a house & find it again in such perfect condition.
Returning home we found Miss E.S. Phelps here. In the evening came Mrs Bell & Mrs. Pratt. The former sang to us her tender love-lorn ditties which so move her audience whenever she is willing to express herself in this way. I met Henry James the other day who had just been listening to her. “The force of emotion can no further go” he said.