Mary’s letters to George in 1836–37 reflect the general atmosphere of the home, with a quiet little liveliness of their own. In order to “comply with good ton,” she wrote in the earliest of them, “I shall first enquire for your health, spirits, and the like of that.” She hoped that after reading the book he had sent she would become “somewhat more civilized,” but in her “presant state of ignorance” she found it difficult to express her gratitude adequately.¹⁵

The civilizing influence of the village school that summer was followed during the next few years, when health permitted, by further study at one at least of the two local academies, and probably at both.¹⁶ Mary, as an aspiring young authoress, was determined to become as learned as she could, but during these years the bluestocking never overwhelmed the belle or caused her to neglect good ton.

Throughout her life she was to put great emphasis on polite manners. To some of the poorly educated people with whom she was thrown in her middle years, her carefulness of speech and observance of small points of etiquette seemed like ridiculous affectation. In the Lindley Murray Readers she early marked numerous passages having to do with social deportment, including the archetypal niceties of Lord Chesterfield. In later life she wrote, “I insist on the etiquette of Christian Science, as well as its morals and Christianity.”¹⁷ It was in part because of her lifelong attention to manners that in her last years, when she was visited by people whose lives had been spent in a sophisticated, cosmopolitan society virtually unknown to her, she impressed so many of them as a great lady as well as a great leader.¹⁸

There was, however, a difference between Abigail and Mary in this respect. With her social ambition, and inflexible will, Abigail succeeded  ● ● ●