pensioned off. He loved his wife for a time, but they drifted
apart, and he found consolation in a sentimental attachment to
a Mrs. Boinville and her daughter, Cornelia Turner, ladies who
read Italian poetry with him and sang to guitars. Harriet had
borne him a daughter, Ianthe, but she herself was a child, who
soon wearied of philosophy and of being taught Latin; naturally
she wanted fine clothes, fashion, a settlement. Egged on by
her sister, she spent on plate and a carriage the money that
Shelley would have squandered on humanity at large. Money
difficulties and negotiations with his father were the
background of all this period. On March 24, 1814, he married
Harriet in church, to settle any possible question as to the
legitimacy of his children; but they parted soon after.
Attempts were made at reconciliation, which might have.
succeeded had not Shelley during this summer drifted into a
serious and relatively permanent passion. He made financial
provision for his wife, who gave birth to a second child, a
boy, on November 30, 1814; but, as the months passed, and
Shelley was irrevocably bound to another, she lost heart for
life in the dreariness of her father's house. An Irish officer
took her for his mistress, and on December 10, 1816, she was
found drowned in the Serpentine. Twenty days later Shelley
married his second wife.

This marriage was the result of his correspondence with William
Godwin, which had ripened into intimacy, based on community of
principles, with the Godwin household. The philosopher, a
short, stout old man, presided, with his big bald head, his
leaden complexion, and his air of a dissenting minister, over a
heterogeneous family at 41 Skinner Street, Holborn, supported