ABSTRACT
B ut M ary G ordon was no t entirely sure how to rep resen t the w om en’s relationship w ith each other. She stresses the dep th o f the ir love an d the seriousness o f the ir com m itm ent. W h en negotiating w ith their families for their freedom to leave Ire land and live together, she has E leanor use the words o f the m arriage cerem ony. She em phasises th a t their feelings w ere m utual, quoting S arah Ponsonby as saying ‘ “I will live an d die w ith Miss B utler” ’.30 W hile she suggests th a t one or two people in their circle believed their relationship was im proper in its intensity an d h in ted a t lesbianism ,31 she is particularly concerned to defend them against tw entieth-century read ings o f hom osexuality:
She [Miss Goddard, a family friend] forgot that Miss Butler had a ‘debauched mind5 and defended her by maintaining the romantic friendship theory, which ruled out any involvement with male persons. What, in the eighteenth century, a romantic friendship was supposed to imply, that she helped their relations to uphold. And since no terrible scientific names were in existence to describe phenomena of the kind, the escapade remained romantic, to the entire peace of the subjects themselves.32
