Thus she is the sponsor of the Ashburton story, in which there is nothing whatsoever.  Some of the letters which Lady Ashburton wrote Carlyle have been destroyed, but not before her husband had perused them.  Another set of letters had never been read by Lord Ashburton at all, and they are still preserved—­friendly, harmless, usual letters.  Lord Ashburton always invited Carlyle to his house, and there is no reason to think that the Scottish philosopher wronged him.

There is much more to be said about the charge that Mrs. Carlyle suffered from personal abuse; yet when we examine the facts, the evidence resolves itself into practically nothing.  That, in his self-absorption, he allowed her to Sending Completed Page, Please Wait ... overflowed toward a man who must have been a manly, loving lover.  She calls him by the name by which he called her—­a homely Scottish name.

Goody, Goody, dear Goody: 

You said you would weary, and I do hope in my heart you are wearying.  It will be so sweet to make it all up to you in kisses when I return.  You will take me and hear all my bits of experiences, and your heart will beat when you find how I have longed to return to you.  Darling, dearest, loveliest, the Lord bless you!  I think of you every hour, every moment.  I love you and admire you, like—­like anything.  Oh, if I was there, I could put my arms so close about your neck, and hush you into the softest sleep you have had since I went away.  Good night.  Dream of me.  I am ever your own Goody.

It seems most fitting to remember Thomas Carlyle as a man of strength, of honor, and of intellect; and his wife as one who was sorely tried, but who came out of her suffering into the arms of death, purified and calm and worthy to be remembered by her husband’s side.

THE STORY OF THE HUGOS

Victor Hugo, after all criticisms have been made, stands as a literary colossus.  He had imaginative power which makes his finest passages fairly crash upon the reader’s brain like blasting thunderbolts.  His novels, even when translated, are read and reread by people of every degree of education.  There is something vast, something almost Titanic, about the grandeur and gorgeousness of his fancy.  His prose resembles the sonorous blare of an immense military band.  Readers of English care less for his poetry; yet in his verse one can find another phase of his intellect.  He could write charmingly, in exquisite cadences, poems for lovers and for little children.  His gifts were varied, and he knew thoroughly the life and thought of his own countrymen; and, therefore, in his later days he was almost deified by them.