The gentleman in question was for years Lady Bulwer's constant and steadfast friend.

It is quite true that he would fain have been something more, but true also that his friendship survived the absolute rejection of all warmer sentiments by the object of it.

It was almost a matter of course that such a woman as Lady Bulwer, living unprotected in the midst of such a society as that of Florence in those days, should be so slandered.

And were it not that there were very few if any persons at the time, and I think certainly not one still left, able to speak upon the subject with such _connaissance de cause_ as I can, I should not have alluded to it.
She was an admirably charming companion before the footlights of the world's stage--not so uniformly charming behind its scenes, for her unreasonableness always and her occasional violence were very difficult to deal with.

But she was, as Dickens's poor Jo says in _Bleak House_, "werry good to me!".