At twenty-four, such a girl has seen the best of life--life as a happy dream.

After that age the risks begin; responsibility comes, and with it the cares, the sorrows, and the inevitable tragedy.

For her mother's sake I would have brought her back from the grave if I could, but I would not have done it for my own.
_From Susy's Biography_.
Then papa went to read in public; there were a great many authors that read, that Thursday afternoon, beside papa; I would have liked to have gone and heard papa read, but papa said he was going to read in Vassar just what he was planning to read in New York, so I stayed at home with mamma.
The next day mamma planned to take the four o'clock car back to Hartford.

We rose quite early that morning and went to the Vienna Bakery and took breakfast there.

From there we went to a German bookstore and bought some German books for Clara's birthday.
Dear me, the power of association to snatch mouldy dead memories out of their graves and make them walk! That remark about buying foreign books throws a sudden white glare upon the distant past; and I see the long stretch of a New York street with an unearthly vividness, and John Hay walking down it, grave and remorseful.