After this outburst he left the room.  Miss Willard never alluded to his fiery criticism, didn’t seem to know she had been hit, but chatted on as if nothing unpleasant had occurred.

In half an hour he returned; and with a smiling face made a manly apology, and asked to be forgiven for his too severe remarks.  Miss Willard met him more than half-way, with generous cordiality, and they became good friends.  And when with the women of the circle again she said:  “Now wasn’t that just grand in that dear old man?  I like him the more for his outspoken honesty and his unwillingness to pain me.”

How they laboured with “Walt” to induce him to leave out certain of his poems from the next edition!  The wife went to her room to pray that he might yield, and the husband argued.  But no use, it was all “art” every word, and not one line would he ever give up.  The old poet was supposed to be poor and needy, and an enthusiastic daughter of Mrs. Smith had secured quite a sum at college to provide bed linen and blankets for him in the simple cottage at Camden.  Whitman was a great, breezy, florid-faced out-of-doors genius, but we all wished he had been a little less au naturel.

To speak once more of Miss Willard, no one enjoyed a really laughable thing more than she did, but I never felt like being a foolish trifler in her presence.  Her outlook was so far above mine that I always felt not rebuked, but ashamed of my superficial lightness of manner.

Just one illustration of the unconscious influence of her noble soul and her convincing words: 

Many years ago, at an anniversary of Sorosis in New York, I had half promised the persuasive president (Jennie June) that I would say something.  The possibility of being called up for an after-dinner speech!  Something brief, terse, sparkling, complimentary, satisfactory, and something to raise a laugh!  O, you know this agony!  I had nothing in particular to say; I wanted to be quiet and enjoy the treat.  But between each course I tried hard, while apparently listening to my neighbour, to think up something “neat and appropriate.”

This coming martyrdom, which increases in horror as you advance with deceptive gayety, from roast to game, and game to ices, is really one of the severest trials of club life.

Miss Willard was one of the honoured guests of the day, and was called on first.  When she arose and began to speak, I felt instantly that she had something to say; something that she felt was important we should hear, and how beautifully, how simply it was said!  Not a thought of self, not one instant’s hesitation for a thought or a word, yet it was evidently unwritten and not committed to memory.  Every eye was drawn to her earnest face; every heart was touched.  As she sat down, I rose and left the room rather rapidly; and when my name was called and my fizzling fireworks expected, I was walking up Fifth Avenue, thinking about her and her life-work.  The whole experience was a revelation.  I had never met such a woman.  No affectation, nor pedantry, nor mannishness to mar the effect.  It was in part the humiliating contrast between her soul-stirring words and my silly little society effort that drove me from the place, but all petty egotism vanished before the wish to be of real use to others with which her earnestness had inspired me.