you not bring yourself to say with holy Job,— "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord'? Think that your dear child has been taken away from the evil to come and is forever safe in heaven. That, certainly, should be a great consolation to you and it will be when the paroxysm of a first grief has subsided and you have had time for sober, pious reflection.

"Need I assure you that you have the sincerest sympathy and most fervent prayers of all my family? God bless you, my dear child, and your good husband, and give you patience, resignation and consolation under your severe affliction, is the prayer of your faithful and devoted friend,

"H. L. RICHARDS."

Occasionally there is some personal reminiscence of interest, as in the following:

"My dear M,

66

"WINCHESTER, Dec. 3, 1902.

I am glad the Transcript1 is such a source of pleasure to you. I can easily imagine what a new world it must open up to you. Bellamy Storer, the father of the present Minister to Austria, was a conspicuous figure in Cincinnati when I was an Episcopal clergyman in 1 A publication for the blind.

Columbus, O. He was a magnificent man-a great Episcopal Churchman, very handsome and high-toned, and we were very proud of him. The son seems to be a real chip of the old block.

"Your devoted friend,

"H. L. RICHARDS."

The even course of Mr. Richards' life at Winchester was varied by some joyous events which may be brought together here, although occurring at considerable intervals of time.

The first of these was the ordination to the priesthood of his youngest son. His reverence for the priestly state was unbounded. Had he been unmarried when entering the Church, he would undoubtedly have wished to take Orders. Before the decision of Leo XIII settled definitely the question of the validity of Anglican Ordinations, he congratulated himself that he might possibly be a true priest. Undoubtedly God intended him to remain in the world and in family life in order that he might be an example of a thoroughly loyal, supernatural and zealous layman. But when his son entered the Society of Jesus, he felt that he was to be represented in the holy priesthood by one who would stand in his place and do the work that was denied to himself. During the winter of 18841885, Mr. Richards, then nearly seventy-one

years of age, passed through a severe illness. Convalescence was slow, and his emaciated frame and feeble step gave to his family and friends cause to apprehend that he might die before the fulfilment of his ardent wish to see his son a priest. By the kindness of Father Robert Fulton, then Provincial, the ordination was advanced a year. Mr. Richards and his wife journeyed to Washington and thence to the Scholasticate at Woodstock, in company with his brother William and the latter's wife Helen, and daughter, Miss Janet E. Richards. There they enjoyed the hearty hospitality of the Fathers during the period of ordination. Mr. Richards' state of joy and consolation during these three days was intense. Those who saw the white-haired veteran, humbly serving his son's first mass in the chapel of the Scholasticate, with his erect figure, noble face and air of rapt devotion, felt that he had reached the climax of his earthly desires and that he was chanting in his heart, "Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, in peace!" In fact, however, the joy of the ordination seemed to give him a new life. From that time, his health improved rapidly, he became stouter and more florid than ever before, and at the time of his death, in his ninetieth year, he was actually more youthful in appearance than at this period eighteen years earlier. Father Fulton used