Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/70

 MARK TWAIN

listen patiently to it, or, indeed, do anything but scoff at it and deride it, is astonishing.

The charge insinuated by these odious slanders is one of the most difficult of all offenses to prove; it is also one which no man has a right to mention even in a whisper about any woman, living or dead, unless he knows it to be true, and not even then unless he can also prove it to be true. There is no justification for the abomination of putting this stuff in the book. J

Against Harriet Shelley s good name there is not one scrap of tarnishing evidence, and not even a scrap of evil gossip, that comes from a source that entitles it to a hearing.

On the credit side of the account we have strong opinions from the people who knew her best. Pea cock says:

I feel it due to the memory of Harriet to state my most decided conviction that her conduct as a wife was as pure, as true, as absolutely faultless, as that of any who for such conduct are held most in honor.

Thornton Hunt, who had picked and published slight flaws in Harriet s character, says, as regards this alleged large one:

There is not a trace of evidence or a whisper of scandal against her before her voluntary departure from Shelley.

Trelawney says:

I was assured by the evidence of the few friends who knew both Shelley and his wife Hookham, Hogg, Peacock, and one of the Godwins that Harriet was perfectly innocent of all offense.

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