Page:The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton.djvu/558

522 themselves on the lists, and proselytizing has extended even to the Turkish soldiery."

All this bears out Isabel's statement that her husband was interested in the Shazlis; but, all the same, it does not enter into the question of his recall. Even if it did, so far from acting without her husband's consent in this matter (and she really did very little), she did nothing without his approval, for he actively sympathized in the case of the Shazlis. His letters to the missionaries and to Sir Henry Elliot form proof of this; and in face of this documentary evidence the "Shakers' dance" theory does not hold good. Miss Stisted, however, makes her assertion without any evidence, and says that Lord Granville evaded the main question when sounded on the subject of Burton's recall. How she became aware of the inner mind of Lord Granville is not apparent, and under the circumstances dispassionate readers will prefer the testimony of the Blue Book to her cool assumption of superior knowledge. Something more than mere assertion is needed to support a charge like this.

Equally baseless too is the insinuation against Isabel contained in the following passage:

"Significant enough it is to any unprejudiced reader that the next appointment [i.e. of Burton's] was to a Roman Catholic country."

The "unprejudiced reader" would probably see the