Page:Wives of the prime ministers, 1844-1906.djvu/167

MRS. DISRAELI Disraelis at Bradenham and was delighted with everything. Another visit was paid at the end of the year. Wyndham Lewis died suddenly of heart disease on 14th March 1838.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Lewis's affection for Disraeli had been steadily growing. It is said that she told a friend she was sure Disraeli cared for her, because he had made love to her in her husband's lifetime. Mrs. Bulwer, who never allowed friendship to interfere with her propensity for ill-natured gossip, declared that Disraeli proposed even before the funeral, and that friends calling to condole with her on her husband's death were asked to congratulate her, for "Disraeli has proposed." Through April and May he wrote constantly to her, sent her flowers from Bradenham, called himself her faithful friend, ready to give her, if she so willed it, his advice, assistance, and society. He signed his letters, "Your affectionate D." In July he saw the review in Hyde Park, in celebration of Queen Victoria's coronation, from Mrs. Wyndham Lewis's house, 1 Grosvenor Gate. By the end of July he was telling her that she was never a moment absent 133