Note 90 — Chapter VII · FIFTEEN MONTHS IN EUROPE 1851-1852

In another letter written on shipboard, Lowell refers to the gift thus: “I held it in especial esteem because it was given in a way so characteristic of John, who sidled up to me as if he were asking a favor instead of doing one, and having slipped it into my hand in a particularly let-not-your-right-hand-know-what-your-left-hand-doeth kind of manner, instantly vanished and remained absconded for half an hour.”