Froude's recollection was that, thinking Carlyle's provision for his niece insufficient,* he had promised her the American income, which he had been told would be large, though it turned out to be very small indeed, in acknowledgment of her services as a copyist.

Ultimately he made her the generous offer of fifteen hundred pounds, retaining only three for himself.

She accepted the money, though she denied that it was a gift.

In the opinion of Mr.Justice Stephen, which is worth rather more than hers, it was legally a gift, though there may have been in the circumstances a moral obligation.

But Mary Carlyle put forward another clam, of which the executors heard for the first time in June, 1881.