and it is so impossible that it should have
been written to any one but Godwin, that it is well worth while quoting
part of it. She sent him a note of introduction to the lady in question,
who, she writes,--

"... is in every sense formed to make one of your disposition
really happy. She has a pleasing voice, with which she accompanies
her musical instrument with judgment. She has an easy politeness in
her manners, neither free nor reserved. She is a good housekeeper
and a good economist, and yet of a generous disposition. As to her
internal accomplishments, I have reason to speak still more highly
of them; good sense without vanity, a penetrating judgment without
a disposition to satire, good nature and humility, with about as
much religion as my William likes, struck me with a wish that she
was my William's wife. I have no certain knowledge of her fortune,
but that I leave for you to learn. I only know her father has been
many years engaged in an employment which brings in L500 or L600
per annum, and Miss Gay is his only child."

Not even this report could kindle the philosophical William into warmth.
He waited many months before he called upon this paragon, and when he
finally saw her, he failed to be enraptured according to Hannah's
expectations. "Poor Miss Gay," as the Godwins subsequently called her,
never received a second visit.

When it came to the point he found that something depended upon himself,
and that he could not be led by his sister's choice, satisfactory as it
might be. That he should for a moment have supposed such a step possible
is the more surprising, because he afterwards showed himself to be not
only fond of the society of women, but unusually nice and discriminating
in selecting it. His women friends were all famous either for beauty or
cleverness. Before his marriage he was on terms of intimacy with Mrs.
Inchbald, with Amelia Alderson, soon to become Mrs. Opie, and with the
beautiful Mrs. Reveley, whose interest in politics and desire for
knowledge were to him greater charms than her personal attractions.
Notwithstanding his unimpassioned nature, William Godwin was never a
philosophical Aloysius of Gonzaga, to voluntarily blind himself to
feminine beauty.

Indeed, there must have been beneath all his coldness a substratum of
warm and strong feeling. He possessed to a rare degree the power of
making friends and of giving sym