conspicuous in him, a letter to his "mother," so
called, in reality the mother of one whom we believe
to have been his betrothed wife, Alice Adams
Ripley, who would show it to Alice and undoubtedly
give it to her, was probably what he
would have written. The others would know what
he had written, but Alice Adams would doubtless
possess the letter.

Alice Adams was to live many, many years, to
become one of the most notable women in the city
in which she dwelt; so honored that a copy of her
portrait has long hung in the Athenaeum, Hartford's
finest shrine for such portraits.

It was said of her that for several years after
Nathan's death she had no intention of marrying,
but, after a widowhood of ten years, events--some
say changed circumstances--led her to accept an
offer of marriage from William Lawrence, of Hartford,
which was thenceforth her home. For many
years she was naturally associated with the social
life of that city.

Whatever letters may have passed between
Nathan Hale and Alice Adams Ripley, no trace of
them remains to-day. For this we can only be
grateful that, unlike other unfortunate lovers,--Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browing,
for instance,--not one word remains of their

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v?