rt the frieze of the
recess, pale blue silk curtains, lined with white, are
hung. A silvered sofa has been made to fit the side of
the room opposite the fireplace--pale blue carpets,
silver lamps, ornaments silvered to correspond."

Her bath was of white marble; her _salle de bain_ was draped with white
muslin trimmed with lace, and its ceiling was beautiful with a painted
Flora scattering flowers and holding an elaborate lamp in the form of a
lotus. And all the rest of the equipment of this dream-palace was in
keeping with these splendours, from the carpets and curtains of crimson
to the gilt consoles, marble-topped _chiffonieres_, and _fauteuils_
"richly carved and gilt and covered with satin to correspond with the
curtains."

This, although Lady Blessington little dreamt it, was to be the last
lavish evidence of her lord's devotion to his beautiful wife; for,
before they had been many months back in England the Earl died suddenly
in the prime of his days. Large as his fortune had been, the last few
years of extravagance had made such inroads in it that all that was left
of his L30,000 a year was an annual income of L600, which went to his
illegitimate son. Fortunately the Countess's jointure of L2,000 a year
was secure; and on this income Lady Blessington was able to face the
future with a heart as light as it could be after such a bereavement;
for, eccentric as her husband had been, and in some ways almost
contemptible, she had loved him dearly for the great and touching love
with which he had always surrounded her.

It was during her early years of widowhood that her ladyship turned for
solace, and also for additional revenue to support the extravagance
which had now become second nature, to her pen, in which she quickly
found a small mine of welcome gold. Her "Books of Beauty" and "Gems of
Beauty" were an instantaneous success--they made a strong appeal to the
flowery sentiment of the time, and sold in tens of thousands of copies.
Her "Conversations with Byron," a record of those halcyon days at Genoa,
fed the curiosity which then invested the most romantic of poets with a
glamour which survives to our day; and her novels and gossipy books of
travel were hailed in succession by an eager public of readers.

In these years of prolific literary labour she was able to double her
jointure, and to maintain much of the splendour to which she had become
so accustomed. Even her literary children wer