“No wonder, Mary, that thy story
Touches all hearts—for there we see
The soul’s corruption, and its glory,
Its death and life combin’d in thee.
. . . . . . . .
No wonder, Mary, that thy face,
In all its touching light of tears,
Should meet us in each holy place,
When man before his God appears,
Hopeless—were he not taught to see
All hope in Him who pardoned thee.”
[355] Yet, M. Vivier told Madame du Quaire that, when he first went to see Mrs. Grote, he found her sitting high aloft in a tree, dressed in a coachman’s brown greatcoat with capes, playing on the violoncello.
[356] Mr. Grote was ever imperturbably placid. When Jenny Lind was asked what she thought of Mr. Grote, she said he was “like a fine old bust in a corner which one longed to dust.” Mrs. Grote dusted him.
[357] This was my last sight of Lady Ruthven, who died April 5, 1885, aged 96.
[358] “Pensées Philosophiques,” 1747.
[359] Since republished in “Biographical Sketches.”
[360] The Stanleys’ dear old nurse.
[361] From “Biographical Sketches.”
[362] Lord Romilly perished in his burning house in Egerton Gardens, London, in May 1891, having never recovered the death of his most sweet wife several years before.
[363] Hon. W. Owen Stanley, brother of the 2nd Lord Stanley of Alderley, and of my aunt Mrs. Marcus Hare.