says:--

"We had each our separate pursuits, whether for the cultivation of
our minds or the promotion of our mutual interests. Separation gave
us respectability in each other's eyes, while it prepared us to
enter with fresh ardor into society and conversation."

The peculiar terms on which they lived had at least one advantage. They
were the means of giving to later generations a clear insight into their
domestic relations. For, as the two occupied separate lodgings and were
apart during the greater part of the day, they often wrote to each other
concerning matters which people so united usually settle by word of
mouth. Godwin's diary was a record of bare facts. Mary never kept one.
There was no one else to describe their every-day life. This is exactly
what is accomplished by the notes which thus, while they are without
absolute merit, are of relative importance. They are really little
informal conversations on paper. To read them is like listening to some
one talking. They show how ready Mary was to enlist Godwin's sympathy on
all occasions, small as well as great, and how equally ready he was to be
interested. It is always a surprise to find that the children of light
are, despite their high mission, made of the same stuff as other men. It
is therefore strange to hear these two apostles of reform talking much in
the same strain as ordinary mortals, making engagements to dine on beef,
groaning over petty ailments and miseries, and greeting each other in
true _bon compagnon_ style. Mary's notes, like her letters to Imlay, are
essentially feminine. Short as they are, they are full of womanly
tenderness and weakness. Sometimes she wrote to invite Godwin to dinner
or to notify him that she intended calling at his apartments, at the same
time sending a bulletin of her health and of her plans for the day. At
others she seems to have written simply because she could not wait, even
a few hours, to make a desired explanation, to express an irrepressible
complaint, or to acquaint him with some domestic _contretemps_. The
following are fair specimens of this correspondence:--

Jan. 5, 1797.

_Thursday morning._--I was very glad that you were not with me last
night, for I could not rouse myself. To say the truth, I was unwell
and out of spirits; I am better to-day.

I shall take a walk before dinner, and expect to see you this
evening, _chez moi_, about eight, if you have