She had other friends, in this town, beside those in my house.  A lady, already alluded to, lived in the village, who had known her longer than I, and whose prejudices Margaret had resolutely fought down, until she converted her into the firmest and most efficient of friends.  In 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne, already then known to the world by his Twice-Told Tales, came to live in Concord, in the “Old Manse,” with his wife, who was herself an artist.  With these welcomed persons Margaret formed a strict and happy acquaintance.  She liked their old house, and the taste which had filled it with new articles of beautiful form, yet harmonized with the antique furniture left by the former proprietors.  She liked, too, the pleasing walks, and rides, and boatings, which that neighborhood commanded.

In 1842, William Ellery Channing, whose wife was her sister, built a house in Concord, and this circumstance made a new tie and another home for Margaret.

ARCANA.

It was soon evident that there was somewhat a little pagan about her; that she had some faith more or less distinct in a fate, and in a guardian genius; that her fancy, or her pride, had played with her religion.  She had a taste for gems, ciphers, talismans, omens, coincidences, and birth-days.  She had a special love for the planet Jupiter, and a belief that the month of September was inauspicious to her.  She never forgot that her name, Margarita, signified a pearl.  ‘When I first met with the name Leila,’ she said, ’I knew, from the very look and sound, it was mine; I knew that it meant night,—­night, which brings out stars, as sorrow brings out truths.’  Sortilege she valued.  She tried sortes biblicae, and her hits were memorable.  I think each new book which interested her, she was disposed to put to this test, and know if it had somewhat personal to say to her.  As happens to such persons, these guesses were justified by the event.  She chose carbuncle for her own stone, and when a dear friend was to give her a gem, this was the one selected.  She valued what she had somewhere read, that carbuncles are male and female.  The female casts out light, the male has his within himself.  ‘Mine,’ she said, ’is the male.’  And she was wont to put on her carbuncle, a bracelet, or some selected gem, to write letters to certain friends.  One of her friends she coupled with the onyx, another in a decided way with the amethyst.  She learned that the ancients esteemed this gem a talisman to dispel intoxication, to give good thoughts and understanding ’The Greek meaning is antidote against drunkenness.’  She characterized her friends by these stones, and wrote to the last mentioned, the following lines:—­

  ’TO ——.