' He records how, during that year, he
had come to know, and to regard with little less than a brother's
affection, the noble lady whom Rossetti had recently married. He
records how on the evening of her terrible death, they all three had
dined together at a restaurant which Rossetti had been accustomed to
frequent. He records how next morning, on coming by appointment to
sit for his portrait, he heard that she had died in the night, under
circumstances which afterwards made necessary his (Swinburne's)
appearance and evidence at the inquest held on her remains. He dwells
upon the anguish of the widower, when next they met, under the roof
of the mother with whom he had sought refuge. He records how Rossetti
appealed to his friendship in the name of the dead lady's regard for
him--a regard such as she had felt for no other of Rossetti's
friends--to cleave to him in this time of sorrow, to come and keep
house with him as soon as a residence could be found.
Can there be a more convincing and a more beautiful testimony as to a
friend's sorrow and its cause?
Over and above the touching testimony of Swinburne, no one will deny
that if ever one man knew another too well to be his biographer, as
Mr.
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