It is not a time for small personalities, if they could ever exist with you; and, dressed or undressed, I shall hope to see you after two o'clock.
'Yours very truly, 'A.

I.NOEL BYRON.' I found Lady Byron in her sick-room,--that place which she made so different from the chamber of ordinary invalids.

Her sick-room seemed only a telegraphic station whence her vivid mind was flashing out all over the world.
By her bedside stood a table covered with books, pamphlets, and files of letters, all arranged with exquisite order, and each expressing some of her varied interests.

From that sick-bed she still directed, with systematic care, her various works of benevolence, and watched with intelligent attention the course of science, literature, and religion; and the versatility and activity of her mind, the flow of brilliant and penetrating thought on all the topics of the day, gave to the conversations of her retired room a peculiar charm.

You forgot that she was an invalid; for she rarely had a word of her own personalities, and the charm of her conversation carried you invariably from herself to the subjects of which she was thinking.