I sent a word to Lady Henry asking if she objected to being mentioned in these pages, and received the following characteristic reply:
“Eastor Castle, Ledbury, Sept. 28, 1899.
“Mrs. C. E. Merrick:
“My dear friend, I thank you very much indeed for your letter. The words you write about Frances touched my heart. She is indeed the woman of the century who has done more than any other to give woman her place, and yet retain her womanliness. Anything you care to say about me and my poor little efforts belongs to you. Believe me yours in our best and truest bond,
“Isabel Somerset.”
While the love I cherish for Frances Willard was shared, in such degree, with Lady Henry, making a common bond between us, it was Mrs. Hannah Whitehall Smith who introduced me to her in Boston. Writing afterward to Mrs. Harriet B. Kells, in Chicago, at National W. C. T. U. Headquarters in the Temple, I said: “Give my love to our peerless Frances, God bless her! You say she is happy in the enjoyment of the delectable society of Lady Henry Somerset. I would say God bless Lady Henry too! only she doesn’t need any blessing, having already everything on earth any one can wish for, with our chieftain’s heart superadded.”
Mrs. Kells repeated this to Lady Henry, who seemed much amused, but did not reveal whether there were yet any unsatisfied longings in her life. Many American hearts to-day say tenderly, “God bless Lady Henry!” for she is a sweet spirit, a brave soul, a true woman. It is no exaggeration to say that these two heroic women are chief historic figures in the records of their sex, and while they were needful to each other their united labor was more important for the world’s reforms.
So many arc-lights have been thrown on Miss Willard’s character that it may not be possible to add more to the world’s knowledge of her. Still I should like to make known a little of her self-revealings in letters to me, on points that illustrate her simple greatness. When the Red Cross was making its first essays in America, a postal card came which showed her friendliness to all worthy organizations: “The Red Cross is royal. No grander plan for ‘We, Us & Co.’ of North and South. If not in W. C. T. U. I should give myself to it. The noblest spirits of all civilized lands are enlisted. Princes in the old world are its sponsors.”
Again, she wrote: “How do you like dear Miss Cobbe’s book, ‘Duties of Women’? I had a letter from her the other day and the creature said, to my astonishment and delight, that she was just as familiar with my name as I was with hers! And she the biggest woman of the age!”
No censure, abuse or disappointment seemed ever to destroy the sweet hopefulness of her spirit. At one time she wrote: “Somebody’s strictures in the New Orleans Picayune gave me many thoughts. I may come under criticism not only in these regards, but in others concerning which there may not have been expression. I sincerely desire to be a true and a growing Christian woman. Some friends can hold the mirror to our faults.”