On March 18, 1815: "Byron is looking remarkably well, and of Lady B. I hardly know how to write, for I have a sad trick of being struck dumb when I am most happy and pleased. The expectations I had formed could not be _exceeded_, but at least they are fully answered. "I think I never saw or heard of a more perfect being in mortal mould than she appears to be, and scarcely dared flatter myself such a one would fall to the lot of my dear B. He seems quite sensible of her value." On March 31, 1815: "Byron and Lady B. left me on Tuesday for London.... The more I see of her the more I love and esteem her, and feel how grateful I am, and ought to be, for the blessing of such a wife for my dear, darling Byron." On September 4, 1815: "My brother has just left me, having been here since last Wednesday, when he arrived very unexpectedly. I never saw him _so_ well, and he is in the best spirits." This is evidence not extorted by questions but spontaneously volunteered. If it proves nothing else, at least it proves that appearances were kept up, and that Augusta was deceived. But appearances, none the less, gave a false impression; and there were other friends, more keen sighted than Augusta, who saw through them. Hobhouse, in particular, did so. He too had had his anxieties, and had been watching; and the notes in his Diary--some of them contemporaneous with, but others subsequent to, Augusta's letters--are not unlike the rumblings of a coming thunderstorm. On March 25, 1815: "I went to bed out of spirits from indeterminate but chiefly low apprehensions about Byron." On April 1, 1815: "He advises me 'not to marry,' though he has the best of wives." On April 2, 1815: "Lady Oxford walks about Naples with Byron's picture on her girdle in front." On July 31, 1815: "Byron is not more happy than before marriage. D. Kinnaird is also melancholy. This is the state of man." On August 4, 1815: "Lord Byron tells me he and she have begun a little snubbing on money matters. 'Marry not,' says he." On August 8, 1815: "Dined with Byron, &c. All grumbled at life." On November 25, 1815: "Called on Byron. In that quarter things do not go well. Strong advice against marriage. Talking of going abroad." There is nothing specific there; and when we set out to look for something specific, we only run up against gossip of doubtful authenticity. "Do I interrupt you?"... "Damnably," may be assumed to be authentic since Byron himself has admitted the repartee. It was rude and reprehensible, though it was probably provoked. The charges which young Harness, now in Holy Orders, heard preferred by some of Lady Byron's friends are rightly described by him as "nonsensical"; but we may as well have them before us in order to judge of the propriety of the epithet: