It has been
urged against her that she was extravagant because, when Burton died,
only four florins remained of the 10,000 pounds which they had netted
by _The Arabian Nights; but when it is borne in mind that she spent
every penny upon her husband and not a penny upon herself, it is not
possible that the charge of extravagance can be maintained against
her--certainly not in a selfish sense.
When Burton took to translating _The Scented Garden_, he acquainted
his wife to some extent with its contents, and she objected. But he
overcame her objections, as he had done before, and the thought that
the money would be needed to maintain her husband in the same comfort
as he enjoyed during the last few years weighed down her scruples;
besides which, though she had a general idea that the book was not
_virginibus purisque_, she had no knowledge of its real character.
When therefore she read it for the first time, in the lonely days of
her early widowhood, with the full shock of her sudden loss upon her,
and a vivid sense of the worthlessness of all earthly gain brought
home to her, she naturally did not look at things from the worldly
point of view. She has told with graphic power how she sat down with
locked doors to read this book, and how she read it through carefully,
page by page; and it must be remembered that it was not Burton's
translation alone which she read, but also the notes and evidence
which he had collected on the subject.
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