give Esther Johnson the name by which she is best known—­and her friend Mrs. Dingley.  Stella’s fortune was about 1500 pounds, and the property Temple had left her was in County Wicklow.  Swift, very much for his “own satisfaction, who had few friends or acquaintance in Ireland,” persuaded Stella—­now twenty years old—­that living was cheaper there than in England, and that a better return was obtainable on money.  The ladies took his advice, and made Ireland their home.  At first they felt themselves strangers in Dublin; “the adventure looked so like a frolic,” Swift says, “the censure held for some time as if there were a secret history in such a removal:  which however soon blew off by her excellent conduct.”  Swift took every step that was possible to avoid scandal.  When he was away, the ladies occupied his rooms; when he returned, they went into their own lodgings.  When he was absent, they often stopped at the vicarage at Laracor, but if he were there, they moved to Trim, where they visited the vicar, Dr. Raymond, or lived in lodgings in the town or neighbourhood.  Swift was never with Stella except in the presence of a third person, and in 1726 he said that he had not seen her in a morning “these dozen years, except once or twice in a journey.”

During a visit to England in the winter of 1703-4 we find Swift in correspondence with the Rev. William Tisdall, a Dublin incumbent whom he had formerly known at Belfast.  Tisdall was on friendly terms with Stella and Mrs. Dingley, and Swift sent messages to them through him.  “Pray put them upon reading,” he wrote, “and be always teaching something to Mrs. Johnson, because she is good at comprehending, remembering and retaining.”  But the correspondence soon took a different turn.  Tisdall paid his addresses to Stella, and charged Swift with opposing his suit.  Tisdall’s letters are missing, but Swift’s reply of April 20, 1704, puts things sufficiently clearly.  “My conjecture is,” he says, “that you think I obstructed your inclinations to please my own, and that my intentions were the same with yours.  In answer to all which I will, upon my conscience and honour, tell you the naked truth.  First, I think I have said to you before that, if my fortunes and humour served me to think of that state, I should certainly, among all persons upon earth, make your choice; because I never saw that person whose conversation I entirely valued but hers; this was the utmost I ever gave way to.  And secondly, I must assure you sincerely that this regard of mine never once entered into my head to be an impediment to you.”  He had thought Tisdall not rich enough to marry; “but the objection of your fortune being removed, I declare I have no other; nor shall any consideration of my own misfortune, in losing so good a friend and companion as her, prevail on me, against her interest and settlement in the world, since it is held so necessary and convenient a thing for ladies to marry, and that time takes off from