Mrs. Leigh wrote simultaneously to Lady Byron to inquire whether the proposal made by her father had her concurrence. The answer, dated February 3, was that it had, but that Lady Byron, owing to her "distressing situation" did not feel "capable of stating in a detailed manner the reasons which will not only justify this measure, but compel me to take it." She referred, however, to Byron's "avowed and insurmountable aversion to the married state, and the desire and determination he has expressed, ever since its commencement, to free himself from that bondage, as finding it quite insupportable"; and she added in a subsequent letter, written on the following day: "I hope, my dear A., that you would on no account, withhold from your brother the letter which I sent yesterday, in answer to yours, written by his desire; particularly as one which I have received from himself to-day renders it still more important that he should know the contents of that addressed to you." That was the stage which the discussion had reached when Hobhouse, calling on Byron on February 5, heard what had happened and was taken into council. The whole thing was a mystery to him, and a mystery on which Byron could throw but little light. In the light of the few facts before him, Lady Byron's conduct was absolutely unaccountable, inconsistent, and incoherent. The transition from the "Dearest Duck" letter to the "avowed and insurmountable aversion to the married state" letter seemed inexplicably abrupt; and, indeed, it seems so still, though later disclosures enable us, in some measure, to trace its history; the facts now known, but not then known either to Byron or to his advisers, being as follows: 1. Lady Byron had assumed that Byron was mad, and must be humoured tactfully. The "Dearest Duck" letter had been the manifestation of her tact. 2. Lady Byron had secretly instructed doctors to inquire into, and report upon, the state of Byron's mind. They had reported that he was perfectly sane; and their report had, in Lady Byron's opinion, removed all shadow of excuse for his behaviour, and decided her to leave him. Hence Lady Noel's journey to London, to consult lawyers. 3. Dr. Lushington, the lawyer consulted, had advised Lady Noel that, while the circumstances laid before him "were such as justified a separation," they were "not such as to render such a measure indispensable," and that he "deemed a reconciliation practicable." 4. Lady Byron had persisted, for reasons which she did not yet state, either to her family or to her legal advisers, in her refusal to return. Hence Sir Ralph Noel's ultimatum.