Page:Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron (1824).djvu/113



“What do you think of Ada?” said he, looking earnestly at his daughter’s miniature, that hung by the side of his writing-table. “They tell me she is like me—but she has her mother’s eyes.

“It is very odd that my mother was an only child;—I am an only child; my wife is an only child; and Ada is an only child. It is a singular coincidence; that is the least that can be said of it. I can’t help thinking it was destined to be so; and perhaps it is best. I was once anxious for a son; but, after our separation, was glad to have had a daughter; for it would have distressed me too much to have taken him away from Lady Byron, and I could not have trusted her with a son’s education. I have no idea of boys being brought up by mothers. I suffered too much from that myself: and then, wandering about the world as I do, I could not take proper care of a child; otherwise I should not have left Allegra, poor little