She did so. That is to say, she talked--mostly to sympathetic women who were more or less discreet, but also, in her later years to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who did not so much as know what discretion was. The story of which Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe had already received hints from the women whose discretion was comparative was ultimately told to her, whose indiscretion was absolute, by Lady Byron herself. She remained as discreet as the rest--that is to say, more or less discreet--during Lady Byron's life, and for some time afterwards. But when the Countess Guiccioli wrote a book about Byron in which Lady Byron was disparaged, she could restrain herself no longer. In support of Lady Byron's story she had no evidence except Lady Byron's word. She did not know--and she did not trouble to inquire--what evidence against it might exist. She did not pause to ask herself whether her own recollection might not be at fault concerning a story which she had heard thirteen years before. It was enough for her, apparently, that Lady Byron was a religious woman, and that Byron, on his own showing, had lived "a man's life." That sufficed, in her view, wherever there was a conflict of statements, to demonstrate that Byron was a liar, and that Lady Byron spoke the truth. So she plunged into the fray, and, with a great flourish of trumpets, published Lady Byron's story in "Macmillan's Magazine." When the "Quarterly Review" had, in so far as it is ever possible to prove a negative, disproved the story, she repeated it with embellishments in a book entitled: "Lady Byron Vindicated: A History of the Byron Controversy from its Beginning in 1816 to the Present Time." The essence of Mrs. Stowe's story is contained in this report of Lady Byron's conversation: "There was something awful to me in the intensity of repressed emotion which she showed as she proceeded. The great fact upon which all turned was stated in words that were unmistakable: "'He was guilty of incest with his sister.'" There is the charge. Turning over the pages in quest of the evidence in support of it, we find this: "She said that one night, in her presence, he treated his sister with a liberty which both shocked and astonished her. Seeing her amazement and alarm he came up to her, and said, in a sneering tone, 'I suppose you perceive _you_ are not wanted here. Go to your own room, and leave us alone. We can amuse ourselves better without you.' "She said, 'I went to my room trembling. I went down on my knees and prayed to my heavenly Father to have mercy on them. I thought: What shall I do?' "I remember, after this, a pause in the conversation, during which she seemed struggling with thoughts and emotions; and, for my part, I was unable to utter a word or ask a question."