Perhaps at
first the independence of the man, his freedom from sentimentality,
piqued, interested, and attracted her. This is often the case with
women. They may fall in love with an unsentimental man, but they can
never be happy with him.

Isopel retained a regard for her fellow-comrade of the road, but she
would not be his wife.

Of his literary friends no one has written so warmly in defence of
Borrow, or shown a more discerning admiration of his qualities than Mr.
Watts-Dunton.

And yet in the warm tribute which Mr. Watts-Dunton has paid to Borrow I
cannot help feeling that some of the illustrations he gives in
justification of his eulogy are scarcely adequate. It may well be that
he has a wealth of personal reminiscences which he could quote if so
inclined, and make good his asseverations. As it is, one can judge only
by what he tells us. And what does he tell us?

To show that Borrow took an interest in children, Mr. Watts-Dunton quotes
a story about Borrow and the gipsy child which "Borrow was fond of
telling in support of his anti-tobacco bias." The point of the story
lies in the endeavours of Borrow to dissuade a gypsy woman from smoking
her pipe, whilst his friend pointed out to the woman how the smoke was
injuring the child whom she was suckling. Borrow used his friend's
argument, which obviously appealed to the maternal instinct in order to
persuade the woman to give up her pipe. There is no reason to think that
Borrow was especially concerned for the child's welfare. What concerned
him was a human being poisoning herself with nicotine, and his dislike
particularly to see a woman smoking. After the woman had gone he said to
his friend: "It ought to be a criminal offence for a woman to smoke at
all." And that it was frankly as an anti-tobacco crusader that he
considered the episode, is proved surely by Mr. Watts-Dunton himself,
when he adds: "Whenever he (Borrow) was told, as he sometimes was, that
what brought on the 'horrors' when he lived alone in the Dingle, was the
want of tobacco, this story was certain to come up."

One cannot accept this as a specially striking instance of Borrow's
interest in children, any more than the passing reference (already noted)
to the extraordinarily beautiful gypsy girl, as an instance of his
susceptibility to feminine charms.

Failing better illustrations at first hand, one turns toward his books,
where he reveals so many characteristics, and here one is