How recklessly he entered into serious entanglements with people whom he had not learned to know, may be gathered from these extracts:--"We will meet you in Wales, and never part again.

It will not do.

In compliance with Harriet's earnest solicitations, I entreated you instantly to come and join our circle, resign your school, all, everything for us and the Irish cause." "I ought to count myself a favoured mortal with such a wife and such a friend." Harriet addressed this lady as "Portia;" and it is an undoubted fact that soon after their return to England, Miss Hitchener formed one of their permanent family circle.

Her entrance into it and her exit from it at no very distant period are, however, both obscure.

Before long she acquired another name than Portia in the Shelley household, and now she is better known as the "Brown Demon." Eliza Westbrook took a strong dislike to her; Harriet followed suit; and Shelley himself found that he had liked her better at a distance than in close companionship.