[580]
IV.
This seems also to be the proper place to allude to Mr. Sumner's unfortunate marriage, but fortunately brief married life. In speaking of it, the Boston Journal holds the following discreet language:At this period of his life—1866—the friends of Mr. Sumner were much gratified by the announcement of his marriage with the widow of a son of Hon. Samuel Hooper, formerly Miss Mason of Boston. The union, however, proved unfortunate, and a separation by mutual consent soon followed, involving no diminution of respect to Mr. Sumner on the part of those best acquainted with the circumstances. Though thus deprived of the crowning felicities of a home, his house, with its rare treasures of literature and art, and its host, ever far more genial in private than his somewhat austere public life indicated, continued to be one of the most attractive in Washington.
