in scrambling poverty by the energy of the second Mrs. Godwin,
who carried on a business of publishing children's books. In
letters of the time we see Mrs. Godwin as a fat little woman in
a black velvet dress, bad-tempered and untruthful. "She is a
very disgusting woman, and wears green spectacles," said
Charles Lamb. Besides a small son of the Godwins, the family
contained four other members--Clara Mary Jane Clairmont and
Charles Clairmont (Mrs. Godwin's children by a previous
marriage), Fanny Godwin (as she was called), and Mary Godwin.
These last two were the daughters of Mary Wollstonecraft, the
author of 'The Rights of Women', the great feminist, who had
been Godwin's first wife. Fanny's father was a scamp called
Imlay, and Mary was Godwin's child.

Mary disliked her stepmother, and would wander on fine days to
read beside her mother's grave in Old St. Pancras Churchyard.
This girl of seventeen had a strong if rather narrow mind; she
was imperious, ardent, and firm-willed. She is said to have
been very pale, with golden hair and a large forehead, redeemed
from commonplace by hazel eyes which had a piercing look. When
sitting, she appeared to be of more than average height; when
she stood, you saw that she had her father's stumpy legs.
Intellectually, and by the solidity of her character, she was
better fitted to be Shelley's mate than any other woman he ever
came across. It was natural that she should be interested in
this bright creature, fallen as from another world into their
dingy, squabbling family. If it was inevitable that her
interest, touched with pity (for he was in despair over the
collapse of his life with Harriet), should quickly warm to
love, we must insist that the rapture with which he leaped to