Forest, who knew her separation from him to have been entirely her own act and choice, and any decent agreement and harmonious life between them absolutely impossible, was completely puzzled by such professions toward a man with whom she was determined never to live, and occasionally said to her, “What do you mean?  Do you wish your husband to come here to you? or do you contemplate going to him?  In short, what is your intention in writing with all this affection to a man from whom you have separated yourself?” Upon this view of her epistle, which did not appear to have struck her, M. de la Forest said, she would (instead of rewriting it) tack on to it, with the most ludicrous inconsistency, a sort of revocatory codicil, in the shape of a postscript, expressing her decided desire that her husband should remain where he was, and her own explicit determination never again to enter into any more intimate relations with him than were compatible with a correspondence from opposite sides of the Atlantic, whatever personal regard or affection for him her letter might appear to express to the contrary notwithstanding.

To my great regret I only saw her act once, though I heard her sing at concerts and in private repeatedly.  My only personal encounter with her took place in a curious fashion.  My father and myself were acting at Manchester, and had just finished performing the parts of Mr. and Mrs. Beverley, one night, in “The Gamester.”  On our return from the theater, as I was slowly and in considerable exhaustion following my father up the hotel stairs, as we reached the landing by our sitting-room, a door immediately opposite to it flew open, and a lady dressed like Tilburina’s Confidante, all in white muslin, rushed out of it, and fell upon my father’s breast, sobbing out hysterically, “Oh, Mr. Kembel, my deare, deare Mr. Kembel!” This was Madame Malibran, under the effect of my father’s performance of the Gamester, which she had just witnessed.  “Come, come,” quoth my father (who was old enough to have been hers, and knew her very well), patting her consolingly on the back, “Come now, my dear Madame Malibran, compose yourself; don’t now, Marie, don’t, my dear child!” all which was taking place on the public staircase, while I looked on in wide-eyed amazement behind.  Madame Malibran, having suffered herself to be led into our room, gradually composed herself, ate her supper with us, expressed herself with much kind enthusiasm about my performance, and gave me a word of advice as to not losing any of my height (of which I had none to spare) by stooping, saying very amiably that, being at a disadvantage as to her own stature, she had never wasted a quarter of an inch of it.  This little reflection upon her own proportions must have been meant as a panacea to my vanity for her criticism of my deportment.  My person was indeed of the shortest; but she had the figure of a nymph, and was rather above than below middle height.  There was in other respects some likeness between us; she was certainly not really handsome, but her eyes were magnificent, and her whole countenance was very striking.