It seemed, at first, as though Lady Byron saw the matter in that light. She did not sail out of the house with indignation--she left it on ostensibly cordial terms with everybody who remained in it. She wrote to Byron in language which seemed to express fond affection, sending him news of his child, and saying that she looked forward to seeing him at Kirkby. One of the letters--there were two of them--began with the words "Dear Duck," and was signed with Lady Byron's pet name "Pippin." That was in the middle of January. There was an interval of a few days, and then it became known that Lady Noel[8] and Mrs. Clermont were in London, "for the purpose," as Hobhouse states, "of procuring means of providing a separation." Nothing, Hobhouse insists, had happened since Lady Byron's departure to account for this sudden change of attitude. There had, in fact, hardly been time for anything to happen. That intrigue with a "woman of the theatre" which Cordy Jeaffreson believed to have been Lady Byron's determining grievance did not begin until a later date. The one thing, in short, which had happened was that Lady Byron--and Mrs. Clermont, who had accompanied her--had talked. Byron's conduct had been painted by them in lurid colours--the more lurid, no doubt, because they found listeners who were at once astounded and sympathetic. Sir Ralph and Lady Noel had, naturally, been indignant. Their daughter, they vowed, was not to be treated in this way; and they were, no doubt, the more disposed to indignation because they and Byron had not got on very well together. Sir Ralph is commonly described in Byron's letters to his intimates as prosy and a bore. "I can't stand Lady Noel," was the reason which he gave Hobhouse for declining to visit her house. A very small spark, in such circumstances, may kindle a fierce conflagration; and it appeared to do so in this case. There was no manoeuvring for position, no beating about the bush. Byron received no intimation, direct or indirect, of the plans which were being laid for his confusion. What he did receive--on February 2--was a stiffly worded ultimatum from his father-in-law. The charges contained in the ultimatum were mostly vague; in so far as they were precise, they were untrue. "Very recently," Sir Ralph began, "circumstances have come to my knowledge"; the circumstances, so far as he disclosed them, relating to Lady Byron's "dismissal" from Byron's house, and "the treatment she experienced while in it." He went on to propose a separation and to demand as early an answer as possible. He got his answer the same day. It was to the effect that Lady Byron had not been "dismissed" from Piccadilly Terrace, but had left London "by medical advice," and it concluded: "Till I have her express sanction of your proceedings, I shall take leave to doubt the propriety of your interference."