ll a pair of what must once have
been magnificent, and were still brilliant and fierce black eyes. She
was in no wise a clever woman, nor was our dear Harriet a clever girl.
Garrow on the other hand and _his_ daughter were both very markedly
clever, and this produced a closeness of companionship and alliance
between the father and daughter which painfully excited the jealousy
of the wife and mother. But it was totally impossible for her to cabal
with her daughter against the object of her jealousy. Harriet always
seeking to be a peacemaker, was ever, if peace could not be made,
stanchly on Theo's side. I am afraid that Mrs. Garrow did not love her
second daughter at all; and I am inclined to suspect that my marriage
was in some degree facilitated by her desire to get Theo out of the
house. She was a very fierce old lady, and did not, I fear, contribute
to the happiness of any member of her family.

How well I remember the appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Garrow, and those
two girls in my mother's drawing-room in the Via dei Malcontenti. The
two girls, I remember, were dressed exactly alike and very _dowdily_.
They had just arrived in Florence from Tours, I think, where they
had passed a year, or perhaps two, since quitting "The Braddons" at
Torquay; and everything about them from top to toe was provincial, not
to say shabby. It was a Friday, my mother's reception day, and the
room soon filled with gaily dressed and smart people, with more than
one pretty girl among them. But I had already got into conversation
with Theodosia Garrow, and, to the gross neglect of my duties as
master of the house, and to the scandal of more than one fair lady, so
I remained, till a summons more than twice repeated by her father took
her away.

It was not that I had fallen in love at first sight, as the phrase is,
by any means. But I at once felt that I had got hold of something of a
quite other calibre of intelligence from anything I had been recently
accustomed to meet with in those around me, and with a moral nature
that was sympathetic to my own. And I found it very delightful. It is
no doubt true that, had her personal appearance been other than
it was, I should not probably have found her conversation equally
delightful. But I am sure that it is equally true that had she been in
face, figure, and person all she was, and at the same time stupid, or
even not sympathetic, I should not have been equally attracted to her.

She was by no means