d to forego all acquaintance with her. Two whom
she then lost, and whom she most deeply regretted, were Mrs. Siddons and
Mrs. Inchbald. In speaking of their secession, Godwin says: "Mrs.
Siddons, I am sure, regretted the necessity which she conceived to be
imposed on her by the peculiarity of her situation, to conform to the
rules I have described." Mrs. Inchbald wept when she heard the news.
Godwin was one of her highly valued friends and admirers, and was a
constant visitor at her house. She feared, now he had a wife, his visits
would be less frequent. Her conduct on this occasion was so ungracious
that one wonders if her vanity were not more deeply wounded than her
moral sensibility. Her congratulations seem inspired by personal pique,
rather than by strong principle. She wrote and wished Godwin joy, and
then declared that she was so sure his new-found happiness would make him
forgetful of all other engagements, that she had invited some one else to
take his place at the theatre on a certain night when they had intended
going together. "If I have done wrong," she told him, "when you next
marry, I will do differently." Notwithstanding her note, Godwin thought
her friendship would stand the test to which he had put it, and both he
and Mary accompanied her on the appointed night. But Mrs. Inchbald was
very much in earnest, and did not hesitate to show her feelings. She
spoke to Mary in a way that Godwin later declared to be "base, cruel, and
insulting;" adding, "There were persons in the box who heard it, and they
thought as I do." The breach thus made was never completely healed. Mr.
and Mrs. Twiss, at whose house Mary had hitherto been cordially welcomed,
also sacrificed her friendship to what, Godwin says, they were "silly
enough to think a proper etiquette."

But there still remained men and women of larger minds and hearts who
fully appreciated that Mary's case was exceptional, and not to be judged
by ordinary standards. The majority of her acquaintances, knowing that
her intentions were pure, though her actions were opposed to accepted
ideals of purity, were brave enough to regulate their behavior to her by
their convictions. Beautiful Mrs. Reveley was as much moved as Mrs.
Inchbald when she heard the news of Godwin's marriage, but her friendship
was formed in a finer mould. Mrs. Shelley says that "she feared to lose a
kind and constant friend; but becoming intimate with Mary Wollstonecraft,
she soon learnt to appr