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of peace to the country, in whose history you have gained yourself so lasting a name.
Mrs. Bancroft joins in all I have written, and more.
I am ever, dear
Sumner, most faithfully yours,
My dear
Bancroft,—Your beautiful note has gratified and touched me much.
It revives the past and it opens the future.
Most sincerely do I trust that I may fulfil all your pleasant auguries.
You shall be my soothsayer.
I am an idealist, and now I hope to live my idea.
Mrs. Bancroft may perhaps recall conversations many years ago in which I expressed my longings and aspirations.
She will surely remember something that was said when I was at your house last December while on my way to
Washington.
Let me confess that I am not without solicitude.
I tremble sometimes at the responsibility I assume.
I am to make another happy; for unless I do this there can be no happiness
for me, and my idea will be quenched in darkness.
But the good God that gave me this new life will, I trust, protect it. If you knew how little of design or will there was in what has occurred, you would see the
Providence which has ruled.
I have sent your note to her whom it so much concerns.
Thank
Mrs. Bancroft and
Mr. Bliss, whom I should be glad to see, and believe me gratefully and sincerely yours,
To
Whittier he wrote, October 17:—
To-day, at three o'clock, I shall be married, and at the age of fifty-five begin to live.
Your good wises are precious to me.
The unhappy sequel may as well be given here.
After a few weeks in
Newport and at the family home in
Boston,
Mr.Sumner and
Mrs. Sumner began to occupy, just before the session in December, 1866, a house in
Washington,—322 I Street. The various preparations for housekeeping were made; a French teacher engaged for the child; a pew in the
Church of the Epiphany rented; a span of horses, which had been Lord Lyons's, bought, to be sold a year later,—the only beasts that
Sumner ever owned.
During the winter he and his wife participated in the social life of
Washington, entertaining and being entertained by senators, diplomatists, and friends, and occasionally attending balls.
1 Remaining at the capital for some weeks after the close of the session, they were again in the house in Hancock Street,
Boston, at the beginning of June, 1867.
Late in the same month she went to
Lenox, and they parted not to meet again.
The final break, however, did not take place till September;
