From the gracefulness of the gift, Southey infers that it
came from a woman, and he conjectures that the woman was Theodora.
CHAPTER VI.
SHORT POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS.
The task was not quite finished when the influence which had inspired
it was withdrawn. Among the little mysteries and scandals of literary
history is the rupture between Cowper and Lady Austen. Soon after the
commencement of their friendship there had been a "fracas," of which
Cowper gives an account in a letter to William Unwin. "My letters have
already apprised you of that close and intimate connexion, that took
place between the lady you visited in Queen Anne Street and us.
Nothing could be more promising, though sudden in the commencement.
She treated us with as much unreservedness of communication, as if we
had been born in the same house and educated together. At her
departure, she herself proposed a correspondence, and, because writing
does not agree with your mother, proposed a correspondence with me.
This sort of intercourse had not been long maintained before I
discovered, by some slight intimations of it, that she had conceived
displeasure at somewhat I had written, though I cannot now recollect
it; conscious of none but the most upright, inoffensive intentions, I
yet apologized for the passage in question, and the flaw was healed
again.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130