I suspect it was this sensitiveness which made
her misunderstood by her children." The justness of this theory of
her conduct is demonstrated by the self-communings in "Thraliana;"
and she misunderstood them as much as they misunderstood her. By her
own showing she had little reason to complain of what they _did_ in
the matter of the marriage; it was what they said, or rather did not
say, that irritated her. She yearned for sympathy, which was sternly,
chillingly, almost insultingly withheld.
In 1800, she wrote thus to Dr. Gray: "What a good example have you
set them (his children)! going to visit dear mama at Twickenham--long
may they keep their parents, pretty creatures! and long may they have
sense to know and feel that no love is like parental affection,--the
only good perhaps which cannot be flung away."[1]
[Footnote 1: "We may have many friends in life, but we can only have
one mother: a discovery, says Gray, which I never made till it was
too late."--ROGERS.]
Madame D'Arblay states that her father was not disinclined to admit
Mrs. Piozzi's right to consult her own notions of happiness in the
choice of a second husband, had not the paramount duty of watching
over her unmarried daughters interfered. But they might have
accompanied her to Italy as was once contemplated; and had they done
so, they would have seen everything and everybody in it under the
most favourable auspices. The course chosen for them by the eldest
was the most perilous of the two submitted for their choice.
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