fe, like that of her husband, closed in much
suffering. I believe she might have enjoyed a fair amount of health
had she not clung with a sort of devotion, not unconnected with the
memory of her husband, to the house which he had built. Nothing could
induce her to go away. She was, moreover, offered a sum of over
L20,000 for it shortly after his death, but declined; it was later
sold for little over a third of the amount. He had bequeathed all his
treasures to the nation, allowing her the life use, but with much
generosity she at once handed over the books, pictures, prints,
sketches, and other things. She bore her sufferings with wonderful
patience and sweetness, and I remember the clergyman who attended her,
and who was at the grave, being much affected.

Mrs. Forster was a woman of more sagacity and shrewdness of
observation than she obtained credit for. She had seen and noted many
curious things in her course. Often of a Sunday afternoon, when I used
to pay her a visit, she would open herself very freely, and reveal to
me many curious bits of secret history relating to her husband's
literary friends. She was very amusing on the Sage of Chelsea. I
recollect she treated Mrs. Carlyle's account of her dreary life and
servitude to her great husband as a sort of romance or delusion,
conveying that she was not at all a lady likely to be thus "put upon."
In vulgar phrase, the boot was on the other leg.

* * * * *

I have thought it right to offer this small tribute to one who was in
his way an interesting and remarkable man. No place has been found for
him in the series known as English Men of Letters; and yet, as I have
before pointed out, he had a place in literature that somewhat
suggests the position of Dr. Johnson. What Forster said, or what
Forster did, was at one time of importance to the community. This sort
of arbiter is unknown nowadays, and perhaps would not be accepted. He
will, however, ever be associated with Charles Dickens, as his friend,
adviser, admirer, corrector, and biographer. There is a conventional
meaning for the term "men of letters," men, that is, who have written
books; but in the stricter sense it is surely one who is "learned in
letters," as a lawyer is learned in the law. Johnson is much more
thought of in this way than as a writer. Forster had this true
instinct, and it was a curious thing one day to note his delight when
I showed him a recent purchase: a fig