This miniature was the portrait of Elizabeth Lloyd to whom the poet’s letters have been published. Was she the inspirer of “Benedicite,” that poem of a deep and holy love?
When Bayard Taylor was ready to bring to Amesbury “his beautiful German wife” whom the poet’s sister had been so eager to see, Miss Whittier was too ill to make the visit possible.
For months she had been growing weaker and more suffering. The doctor sent her to Boston to be in care of Dr. Z——, then a very famous woman physician. During this time Miss Whittier visited Mrs. W——, a sister of Dr. S——.
But in spite of all efforts the disease progressed, and Elizabeth returned to Amesbury worse. From that time she steadily failed, and in the late summer of 1864 she passed to the life beyond.
The doctor’s wife who was often in Miss Whittier’s room during the latter part of her illness could well have given a touch of the poet’s inner life.
One day Elizabeth in a spasm of pain looked up at her brother from this friend who was bending over her.
“Ah, Greenleaf,” she said, “I wish thee had a good, strong wife like the doctor’s.”
“So do I, Elizabeth,” he answered her. “But thee knows—”