Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe, Florence Howe Hall, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, in two volumes, with portraits and other illustrations: volume 1

[58] all who saw her Add to this her singing, her wit, and the charm which was all and always her own, and we have the Diva Julia, as she was called by some who loved her. Her sisters, also, were growing up, each exquisitely attractive in her way: they became known as the “Three graces of Bond Street.” Louisa was like a damask rose, Annie like a dark lily; dark, too, of eyes and hair were Sam and Marion, while Henry was fair and blue-eyed.

At this distance of time, it may not be unpardonable to touch briefly on another aspect of our mother's youth; indeed, it would hardly be candid to avoid it. From the first she seems to have stirred the hearts of men. Her masters, old and young, fell in love with her almost as a matter of course. Gilded youth and sober middle-age fared no better; her girlhood passed to the sound of sighing.

“Mfy dear,” said an intimate friend of the three, speaking of these days, “Louisa had her admirers, and Annie had hers; but when the men saw your mother, they just flopped!”

Among her papers we have found many relics of these days, from the faded epistle addressed, “c Julie, la respected, la choisie, l'aimte, la cherie,” to the stern letter in which Mr. Ward “desires not to conceal from the Rev. Mr. the deliberate and dispassionate opinion, that a gentleman whose sacred office commanded ready access to his roof, might well have earlier ascertained the views of a widow'd Father on a subject so involving the happiness of his child.”

The unhappy suitor's note to Miss Julia is enclosed,