Lady Burton was greatly gratified by all this, and
she says a little bitterly: "It shows how truly he was appreciated except
by the handful who could have made his life happy by success."
Her first public act after her husband's death was a defence of his
memory. She had fought so hard for him when living that it seemed only
natural to her to go on fighting for him now that he was beyond the reach
of praise or blame. Colonel Grant had written a letter to _The Times_
anent an obituary notice of Sir Richard Burton, in which he defended
Speke, and spoke of the "grave charges" which Speke communicated against
Burton to his relatives and to the Geographical Society. Lady Burton
saw this letter some time after it appeared. She knew well enough
what it hinted at, and she lost no time in sending a reply wherein
she defended her husband's character, and prefaced her remarks with
the characteristic lines:
He had not dared to do it,
Except he surely knew my lord was dead.
Lady Burton had soon to face, in these first days of her widowhood, the
problem of her altered circumstances. With her husband's death his
salary as a Consul came to an end, and there was no pension for his
widow. For the last three or four years, since they had netted
10,000 pounds by _The Arabian Nights_, the Burtons had been living
at the rate of 3,000-4,000 pounds a year, and had kept up their palazzo
at Trieste and a large staff of servants, in addition to continually
travelling _en prince_, with all the luxuries of the best hotels,
servants, and a resident doctor who always accompanied them.
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