of person, sweetness of disposition, a quick intelligence,
and cultivated tastes, Miss Stuart seems to have possessed in
large measure that indefinable but potent gift, which is
called charm. Through some misapprehension, Lockhart appears
to have antedated the beginning of her influence over Scott,
as in 1790 she was hardly more than a child, and she was not
sixteen when he was called to the Bar, though the meeting in
the Greyfriars' Churchyard had probably already taken place.
The "three years of dreaming" were ended, as the biographer
narrates, in the autumn of 1796. On January 19, 1797, Miss
Stuart was married to William Forbes, son and heir of Sir
William Forbes of Pitsligo, an eminent banker, and the author
of a Life of his friend Beattie. Scott's affectionate
allusions to his early rival will be found in the
Introduction to the Fourth Canto of _Marmion_:--

"And one whose name I may not say,--
For not mimosa's tender tree
Shrinks sooner from the touch than he,"--

an Introduction inscribed to James Skene of Rubislaw, whose
marriage to a daughter of Sir William had been speedily
followed by the father's death. Mr. Forbes succeeded to the
baronetcy in 1806, and his wife, on the death of Sir John
Stuart, inherited Fettercairn. She died December 5, 1810,
after thirteen years of unclouded happiness. Dean Boyle has
recorded that Lockhart once read to him the letter "full of
beauty," which Scott wrote to the bereaved husband at this
time. Lady Stuart-Forbes left six children, four sons and two
daughters. The three sons who survived to maturity all were
men of unusual ability.

The story of Williamina Stuart's brief life was told for the
first time with any fulness by Miss F. M. F. Skene in the
_Century Magazine_ for July, 1899. As the daughter of one of
Scott's earliest and dearest friends and the niece of Sir
William Forbes, she could write with knowledge. She says that
from the day of his wife's death, "so far as society and the
outer world were concerned, Sir William Forbes may be said to
have died with her. He retired into the most complete
seclusion, maintaining the heart-s