ABSTRACT
Jane Brookfield, died at eight months old, and their third, Harriet Marian known as 'Minny' to her sister's 'Anny' became the first wife of Leslie Stephen, future father of Virginia Woolf. In winter time they dined at five by lamplight at the round table in my grandfather's study. They have a friend who declares that Fate is a humorist, linking their's all together by strangest whims, even by broad jokes at times; and this vague little humour of the weeping Lady Mayoress is the one personal link with the great Whig administrator of the last generation. Suddenly, conscious as they write that the experiences are very partial; but a witch's caldron sic must needs after all contain heterogeneous scraps. A friend had taken into the ventilator of the House of Commons, where they listened to a noble speech and watched the two shadows on the grating overhead of the feet of the messenger of glad tidings.
