not a word from her
reached her friends at home. As for those in Paris, so intense was the
great human tragedy of which they were the witnesses, that they probably
forgot to gossip about each other. The crimes and horrors that stared
them in the face were so appalling that desire to seek out imaginary ones
in their neighbors was lost. As far as can be known from Mary's letters,
her connection with Imlay did not take from her the position she had held
in the English colony. No door was closed against her; no scandal was
spread about her. The truth is, these people must have understood her
difficulties as well as she did. They knew the impossibility of a legal
ceremony and the importance in her case of an immediate union; and
understanding this, they seem to have considered her Imlay's wife. At
least the rumors which months afterwards came to her sisters treated her
marriage as a certainty. Charles Wollstonecraft, now settled in
Philadelphia, wrote on June 16, 1794, to Eliza, a year after Mary and
Imlay had begun their joint life: "I heard from Mary six months ago by a
gentleman who knew her at Paris, and since that have been informed she is
married to Captain Imlay of this country." The same report had found its
way to Mr. Johnson, and through him again to Mrs. Bishop. It was hard to
doubt its truth, and yet Mrs. Bishop knew as well as, if not better than,
any one Mary's views about marriage. She had, happily for herself, reaped
the benefit of them. In her surprise she sent Charles's letter to
Everina, accompanied by her own reflections upon the startling news.
These are a curious testimony to the strength of Mary's objections to
matrimony. Eliza's petty envy of her greater sister is still apparent in
this letter. It is dated August 15:--

"... If Mary is _actually_ married to Mr. Imlay, it is not
impossible but she might settle there [in America] too. Yet Mary
cannot be _married_! It is natural to conclude her protector is her
_husband_. Nay, on reading Charles's letter, I for an instant
believed it true. I would, my Everina, we were out of suspense, for
all at present is uncertainty and the most cruel suspense; still,
Johnson does not repeat things at random, and that the very same
tale should have crossed the Atlantic makes me almost believe that
the once M. is now Mrs. Imlay, and a mother. Are we ever to see
this mother and her babe?"

The only record of Mary's conne