cene, hurried out to warn her of his presence, and to
advise her not to come in the room. But Mary, not heeding her, entered
fearlessly, and, with Fanny by the hand, went up and spoke to Imlay. They
retired, it seems, to another room, and he then promised to see her
again, and indeed to dine with her at her lodgings on the following day.
He kept his promise, and there was a second interview, but it did not
lead to a reconciliation. The very next day she went into Berkshire,
where she spent the month of March with her friend, Mrs. Cotton. She
never again made the slightest attempt to see him or to hear from him.
There was a limit even to her affection and forbearance. One day, after
her return to town, she was walking along the New Road when Imlay passed
her on horseback. He jumped off his horse and walked with her for some
little distance. This was the last time they met. From that moment he
passed completely out of her life.

And so ends the saddest of all sad love stories.

CHAPTER X.

LITERARY WORK.

1793-1796.

The first volume of "An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and
Progress of the French Revolution, and the Effect it has produced in
Europe," which Mary wrote during the months she lived in France, was
published by Johnson in 1794. It was favorably received and criticised,
especially by that portion of the public who had sympathized with the
Revolutionists in the controversy with Burke. One admirer, in 1803,
declared it was not second even to Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire." It went very quickly through two editions, surest proof of
its success. The "Analytical Review" called it

"... a work of uncommon merit, abounding with strong traits of
original genius, and containing a great variety of just and
important observations on the recent affairs of France and on the
general interests of society at the present crisis."

Mary had apparently spent in idleness the years which had elapsed since
the "Rights of Women" had taken England by storm. But in reality she must
have made good use of them. This new book marks an enormous advance in
her mental development. It is but little disfigured by the faults of
style, and is never weakened by the lack of method, which detract from
the strength and power of the work by which she is best known. In the
"French Revolution" her arguments are well weighed and balanced, and
flowers of rhetoric, with a few exceptions, are sa