Carlyle, on the other hand, had become, so Froude discovered from his wife's journal, romantically, though quite innocently, attached to Lady Ashburton, and this was one cause of dissension at Cheyne Row.

There was nothing very dreadful in the disclosure.

Carlyle was a much safer acquaintance for the other sex than Robert Burns, whose conversation carried the Duchess of Gordon off her feet, and Mrs.Carlyle's jealousy was not of the ordinary kind.

Still, the incident was not one of those which lighten a biographer's responsibility.

Froude has himself explained, in a paper not intended for publication, the light in which it appeared to him.