Her father, Agatha said, lived in constant warfare with the misery and suffering of his fellow-creatures, and he was, in fact, able to make those about him happy and prosperous.

The poorest were dearest to his loving heart, and on his estate across the lake he had collected none but the sick and wretched.

The care of the children was left to her, and the little ones clung to her as if she were their mother.

She had neither brother nor sister .-- And so the conversation turned on Alexander, of whom Agatha could never hear enough.
And how proud was Melissa to speak of the bright young artist, who till now had been the sun of her joyless life! There was much that was good to be said about him: for the best masters rated his talent highly in spite of his youth; his comrades were faithful; and none knew so well as he how to cheer his father's dark moods.

Then, there were many amiable and generous traits of which she had been told, or had herself known.
With his very first savings, he had had the Genius with a reversed torch cast in bronze to grace his mother's grave, and give his father pleasure.