I loved him dearly, and he knew it, and he loved me; I know well he did.

When I came back a Redemptorist from Europe, I went to see him at the _Tribune_ office.

He asked me, 'Can you do all that any Catholic priest can do ?' 'Yes.' 'Then I will send for you when I am drawing towards my end.' "Indeed, if one could have gone to Ripley, at any time in his later years, and said, 'You will never return again to the society of men,' and persuaded him it was true, he would have said at once, 'Send for Father Hecker or some other Catholic priest.' I am persuaded that the fear of facing his friends hindered George Ripley from becoming a Catholic.

He sent for me when taken down by his last illness, but his message was not delivered.

As soon as I heard that he was ill I hastened to his bedside, but his mind was gone and I could do nothing for him." And now, having given so fully such of his own impressions as remain of the persons and places which helped to shape Father Hecker in early manhood, we will terminate the record of this period with two letters, one from each community, which were written him soon after his return to New York.