ve him, had the magnanimity to take upon himself the
burden of breaking the engagement, and settled 3,000 pounds on her as
an indemnity for his supposed breach of covenant.

A certain rascally Captain Mathews, a married rake, and a so-called
friend of her father, had the effrontery to follow her with his
solicitations, from which she was rescued by the young Sheridan, who
fell in love with Elizabeth and persuaded her to fly with him to
France. There, at Calais, they went through a formal ceremony of
marriage, separating immediately afterward, the lady entering a
convent, and Sheridan returning to England. Here he fought two duels
with Captain Mathews, in the second of which he was quite seriously
wounded. Mr. Linley went to France and brought his daughter home, and
finally, about a year from the time of the Calais episode, the young
couple were married again, this time in full sight of the world.

The future author of "The Rivals" and "The School for Scandal,"
addressed to his Eliza, among other early productions, this pretty
snatch of song:

"Dry be that tear, my gentlest love,
Be hush'd that struggling sigh;
Nor seasons, day, nor fate shall prove
More fix'd, more true than I.
Hush'd be that sigh, be dry that tear;
Cease boding doubt, cease anxious fear;
Dry be that tear.

"Ask'st thou how long my love will stay,
When all that's new is past?
How long, ah! Delia, can I say
How long my life will last?
Dry be that tear, be hush'd that sigh;
At least I'll love thee till I die.
Hush'd be that sigh.

"And does that thought affect thee too,
The thought of Sylvio's death,
That he who only breath'd for you
Must yield his faithful breath?
Hush'd be that sigh, be dry that tear,
Nor let us lose our heaven here.
Dry be that tear."

For some eighteen years the Sheridans lived together,--Elizabeth never
sang in public again after her marriage,--and then their union was
broken by death. The devoted wife to this brilliant, but selfish,
unreliable, and extravagant genius died in 1792, of consumption.

"Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory,"

and surely during the years of life left to Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
he must often have recalled the happy days when he listened in delight
to the music of his loved one's voice.

[Illustration: Sheridan at the Linleys. From painting by Margaret
Dicksee.]

Sir Joshua Reynolds painted he