81
ables other drawbacks, as the long visits of the Griffins,
(by the by Weighty � the prettier of the two and the more sel-
fish, is going to get married to a lawyer) her sister�s living
here � I suppose she don�t pay � Rawson taking out in board
an $100 lent to Mrs P. by his mother (for which that amiable
person took interest) and empty rooms � these, added together,
make up a big aggregate lump of trouble for a woman to fight
against. Mrs Potter�s a good woman and a character. Her
father appears to have been a wealthy and affectionate man.
The family lived up the Hudson, near the town of that name, kept
a carriage &c. They � the parents came from the north of Ireland;
knew Andrew Jackson and well to do people. Mrs P remembers
her father�s kneeling down in a field and praying for her, his
little daughter. Her mother � old Mrs Cooper, now about
the most unvenerable old woman conceivable � was very severe
with her daughters, and used to lick Mrs P, in her teens, be-
cause she wouldn�t marry a weathy Cuban whom she detested.
At 17 she did marry. Her husband � an amiable spoon I
fancy, from a little story of hers, how he would turn a picture
representing a woman with a low dress on with its face to the
wall (!) � died nine months subsequent to the married. Then
came misfortunes. Mrs P has lived as the mistress of a
boarding-house ever since. Her theory of life is rather a
mortified one. She thinks it�s good for us to be served out.
She professes Presbyterianism, and is a good deal wrapped up
in dead formula, as to creed. She has, with her husband,
been a vegetarian and ventures a mild opinion that we all
eat more than is good for us. She traces most of the evil in
the world to intemperance. Her strong hold in argument is