She, too, was thankful for work, for the study which kept her from thinking of other things.
The Misses Cabot--their Christian names were Priscilla and Hortense--she found to be middle-aged maiden ladies, eminently prim and proper, and the educational establishment over which they presided a sort of Protestant nunnery ruled according to the precepts of the Congregational Church and the New England aristocracy.

Miss Priscilla was tall and thin and her favorite author was Emerson; she quoted Emerson extensively and was certain that real literature died when he did.

Miss Hortense was younger, plumper, and more romantic.

She quoted Longfellow and occasionally Oliver Wendell Holmes, although she admitted she considered the latter rather too frivolous at times.

Both sisters were learned, dignified, and strict disciplinarians.