Mabel recounted an early visit to The Evergreens, in a letter to her parents: “Last evening…we went to return the Dickinson’s call. I told you I admired Mrs. Dickinson at first, but I am thoroughly captivated with her now. She does, as I supposed, live very handsomely, & she is so easy and charming, & sincere – and she understands me completely. She has a beautiful new upright piano, & her daughter & I played some duets, & then I sang… Her husband was not at home last night – but I was very much impressed with him in various ways. He is fine (& very remarkable) looking – & very dignified & strong and a little odd.”
Correspondence from Mabel Loomis Todd to her parents, quoted in The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson, ed. Jay Leyda (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960), 1:354.
