The reasons alike for his offer and for her refusal of it remain obscure. He must, at any rate, have liked her; he was almost certainly getting tired of Lady Caroline's determination to monopolise and exploit him; perhaps he was also anxious to do anything in reason to oblige Lady Melbourne, who had the motives which we know of for desiring to bring about the match. Whether Miss Milbanke, on her part, preferred some other admirer or resented Lady Melbourne's attempt to make a convenience of her is doubtful. Both motives may have operated simultaneously; and Byron, at any rate, accepted his refusal in a philosophic spirit. It had not, Hobhouse says, "sunk very deep into his heart or preyed upon his spirits." He "did not pretend to regret Miss Milbanke's refusal deeply." Indeed "it might be said that he did not pretend to regret it at all." And Hobhouse describes a "ludicrous scene" when some common friend related that he had been rejected by Miss Milbanke, and burst into tears over the catastrophe. "Is that all?" said Lord Byron. "Perhaps then it will be some consolation for you to know that I also have been refused by Miss Milbanke." Perhaps it was--some unsuccessful suitors are quite capable of taking comfort from such reflections; but that need not concern us. What we have to note is that Byron's rejection by Miss Milbanke resulted in his engaging in a long correspondence with her; and that the commencement of that correspondence was negotiated by Lady Melbourne. One infers that Lady Melbourne was a very clever woman, by no means innocent of "ulterior motives," far less ready than Byron to take "no" for an answer from Miss Milbanke, and intuitively conscious that correspondences of this character are apt to weave entanglements for those who engage in them. Some extracts from the correspondence are printed in Mr. Murray's Collected Edition of Byron's Works. There are references to it both in Byron's Journal and in Hobhouse's Account of the Separation. There is nothing in the text which it seems imperative to quote--nothing, that is to say, which perceptibly helps the story along. Byron's own letters are rather high-flown and artificial. The impression which one gathers from them is that of a man elaborately keeping alive the double pretence that he is unworthy and that he is disappointed--but only keeping it alive out of politeness. The nature of Miss Milbanke's letters can only be inferred from the one or two allusions which we find to them.