our secret longings, we all expect. It does not fill the heart,--it
is an intoxication followed by a dismal reaction.' She tells a
friend that never in all her life was she so depressed and out of
spirits as after 'Rienzi,' her first really successful venture. But
there is also a passing allusion to her father's state of mind, to
his mingled irritation and sulkiness, which partly explains things.
Could it be that the Doctor added petty jealousy and envy to his
other inconvenient qualities? His intolerance for any author or
actor, in short, for any one not belonging to a county family, his
violent annoyance at any acquaintances such as those which she now
necessarily made, would naturally account for some want of spirits
on the daughter's part; overwrought, over-taxed, for ever on the
strain, her work was exhausting indeed. The small pension she
afterwards obtained from the Civil List must have been an
unspeakable boon to the poor harassed woman.

Tragedy seems to have resulted in a substantial pony and a basket
carriage for Miss Mitford, and in various invitations (from the
Talfourds, among the rest) during which she is lionised right and
left. It must have been on this occasion that Serjeant Talfourd
complained so bitterly of a review of 'Ion' which appeared about
that time. His guest, to soothe him, unwarily said, 'she should not
have minded such a review of HER Tragedy.'

'YOUR "Rienzi," indeed! I should think not,' says the serjeant.
'"Ion" is very different.' The Talfourd household, as it is
described by Mr. Lestrange, is a droll mixture of poetry and prose,
of hospitality, of untidiness, of petulance, of most genuine
kindness and most genuine human nature.