The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

PLEASANT ANTICIPATIONS* 3

239

wants, and we were left to rest and recuperate until lunch
was served.
As I closed the door of my room, and shut myself away
from the children, all of whom, except the boys, were
bestowed in the same house with me, I congratulated
myself that I had been included in this visit, and had been
welcomed with such cordial hospitality. "1What a rare and
delightful week of pleasure I shall be able to report to my
friends! " I said to myself. "1Here I shall forget the horror
of Bryson's cruelty that still clitigs to me; and in this
earthly paradise Laura will cease to brood over her plainness of face, and will recover from the strange and morbid
fancies with which she is haunted. How fortunately this
visit has happened!I"