are commonly durable in proportion to
the closeness of the tie that has been severed; and it is no more
than natural that each party, yearning for a reconciliation and not
knowing that the wish is reciprocated, should persevere in casting
the blame of the prolonged coldness on the other. Occasional sarcasms
no more prove disregard or indifference, than Swift's "only a woman's
hair" implies contempt for the sex.

Miss Thrale's marriage with Lord Keith in 1808 is thus mentioned in
"Thraliana":

"The 'Thraliana' is coming to an end; so are the Thrales. The eldest
is married now. Admiral Lord Keith the man; a _good_ man for ought I
hear: a _rich_ man for ought I am told: a _brave_ man we have always
heard: and a _wise_ man I trow by his choice. The name no new one,
and excellent for a charade, _e.g_.

"A Faery my first, who to fame makes pretence;
My second a Rock, dear Britannia's defence;
In my third when combined will too quickly be shown
The Faery and Rock in our brave Elphin-stone."

Her way of life after Piozzi's death may be collected from the
Letters, with the exception of one strange episode towards the end.
When nearly eighty, she took a fancy for an actor named Conway, who
came out on the London boards in 1813, and had the honour of acting
Romeo and Jaffier to the Juliet and Belvidera of Miss O'Neill (Lady
Becher). He also acted with her in Dean Milman's fine play, "Fazio."
But it was his ill fate to reverse Churchill's famous lines:

"Before such merits all objections fly,
Pritchard's genteel, and Garrick's six feet high."

Conway was six feet high, and a very handsome man to boot; but his
advantages were purely physical; not a spark of genius animated his
fine features and commanding figure, and he was battling for a
moderate share of provincial celebrity, when Mrs. Piozzi fell in with
him at Bath. It has been rumoured in Flintshire that she wished to
marry him, and offered Sir John Salusbury a large sum in ready money
(which she never possessed) to give up Brynbella (which he could not
give up), that she might settle it on the new object of her
affections. But none of the letters or documents that have fallen in
my way afford even plausibility to the rumour, and some of the
testamentary papers in which his name occurs, go far towards
discrediting the belief that her attachment ever went beyond
admiration and friendship expressed in exaggerated terms.[1]

[Footnote 1: Since the appearance