life, and the influence of Newman was
chiefly upon his style. Of Newman indeed he saw very little after he
left Oxford, though his admiration and reverence for him never
abated. It was not until he came to live in London after the death
of his first wife that he grew really intimate with Carlyle. Up to
that time he was no more than an occasional visitor in Cheyne Row
with a profound belief in the philosophy of that incomparable poem
in prose, The French Revolution. Carlyle helped him with his own
history, the earlier volumes of which show clear traces of the
master, and encouraged him in his literary work.

Mrs. Carlyle was scarcely less remarkable than her husband. Although
she never wrote a line for publication, her private letters are
among the best in the language, and all who knew her agree that she
talked as well as she wrote. Froude thought her the most brilliant
and interesting woman he had ever met. The attraction was purely
intellectual. Mrs. Carlyle was no longer young, and Froude's
temperament was not inflammable. But she liked clever men, and
clever men liked her. She was an unhappy woman, without children,
without religion, without any regular occupation except keeping
house. Her husband she regarded as the greatest genius of his time,
and his affection for her was the deepest feeling of his heart. He
was at bottom a sincerely kind man, and his servants were devoted to
him. But he was troublesome in small matters; irritable, nervous,
and dyspeptic. His books harassed him like illnesses, and he groaned
under the infliction. If he were disturbed when he was working, he
lost all self-control, and his wife felt, she said, as if she were
keeping a private mad-house. It was not quite so private as it might
have been, for Mrs. Carlyle found in her grievances abundant food
for her sarcastic tongue. Whatever she talked about she made
interesting, and her relations with her husband became a common
subject of gossip. It was said that the marriage had never been a
real one, that they were only companions, and so forth. Froude was
content to enjoy the society of the most gifted couple in London
without troubling himself to solve mysteries which did not concern
him.

Thrifty as she was, Mrs. Carlyle was not fitted by physical strength
and early training to be the wife of a poor man. She was too anxious
a housekeeper, and worried herself nervously about trifles. Her
father had been a country doctor, not rich, but abl