star-sapphire, and how untidy his writing-table was, and how the house-
maid had orders always to bring the waste-paper basket to her mistress
before emptying it, lest some immortal verse should be thrown into the
dust-bin."

"The Anertons never separated, did they?"

"Separated? Bless you, no. He never would have left Rendle! And besides,
he was very fond of his wife."

"And she?"

"Oh, she saw he was the kind of man who was fated to make himself
ridiculous, and she never interfered with his natural tendencies."

From Mrs. Memorall, Danyers further learned that Mrs. Anerton, whose
husband had died some years before her poet, now divided her life between
Rome, where she had a small apartment, and England, where she occasionally
went to stay with those of her friends who had been Rendle's. She had been
engaged, for some time after his death, in editing some juvenilia which he
had bequeathed to her care; but that task being accomplished, she had been
left without definite occupation, and Mrs. Memorall, on the occasion of
their last meeting, had found her listless and out of spirits.

"She misses him too much--her life is too empty. I told her so--I told her
she ought to marry."

"Oh!"

"Why not, pray? She's a young woman still--what many people would call