ld be so many other things
besides, one of his achievements, for us, will prove to have been that
he could be so "ugly." _That_ would not have been reckoned among his
glories in the Yellow Book-room; but the wheel shall come full
circle--we shall be saying all this, one day, the other way round. For,
as Browning consoles, encourages, and warns us by showing in
_Fifine_,[x:1] each age believes--and should believe--that to it alone
the secret of true art has been whispered.

ETHEL COLBURN MAYNE.

FOOTNOTES:

[x:1] I write far from my books, but the passage will be easily found or
recalled.

11 HOLLAND ROAD,
KENSINGTON, W.

[Illustration]

CONTENTS

PART I

GIRLHOOD

PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 3

I. THE GIRL IN "COUNT GISMOND" 15

II. PIPPA PASSES
I. Dawn: Pippa 23
II. Morning: Ottima 36
III. Noon: Phene 51
IV. Evening; Night: The Ending of the Day 67

III. MILDRED TRESHAM 81

IV. BALAUSTION 93

V. POMPILIA 122

PART II

THE GREAT LADY

"MY LAST DUCHESS," AND "THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS" 165

PART III

THE LOVER

I. LOVERS MEETING 199

II. TROUBLE OF LOVE: THE WOMAN'S
I. The Lady in "The Glove" 215
II. Dis Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron De Nos Jours 224
III. The Laboratory 233
IV. In a Year 237

PART IV

THE WIFE

I. A WOMAN'S LAST WORD 245

II. JAMES LEE'S WIFE 250
I. She Speaks at the Window 254
II. By the Fireside 256
III. In the Doorway 257
IV. Along the Beach 258
V. On the Cliff 261
VI. Reading a Book, under the Cliff 262
VII. Among the Rocks 265
VIII. Beside the Drawing-bo