Until Mrs.Carlyle's letters appeared the world knew nothing of her at all, except through her husband's sketch.

Considering that good letter-writers are almost as rare as good poets, and that Jane Carlyle is one of the very best, the general reader might have been simply grateful, as perhaps he was.

But for purposes of scandal the value of the book was the light it threw upon the matrimonial squabbles, actual or imaginary, of two remarkable persons.

Mrs.Carlyle had long been dead, and her relations with her husband were of no importance to any one.

But the trivial mind grasps at trivialities, and will not be satisfied without them.