17/02/2026 17:29

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Before us, there, she stood, all wreathed and drapedIn roses pearled with dew-so sweet, so glad,So radiant!--and flung us kisses through the stormOf praise that crowned her triumph . I think Ispoke with her at two or three different moments during the afternoon,and on each occasion was impressed with that feeling even the words do not convey: If I had been there a minute earlier, it is possible--it is possiblethat she might have died in my arms. I know you dogreat work in America; I know you have done a great and noble work inregard to General Grant's book, but that my Life should have such a saleseems impossible.

But I am not a business man, and honor is a harder master than the law. I am going to Australia, India, and South Africa, and next year I hope to make a tour of the great cities of the United States. I can't be absolutely sure of it because of modifying doubts created afterward by one or two circumstances. I knew what that poemwould be to them; I knew it would raise me up to remote and shiningheights in thei