'I am desired to add: Lady B. is ----, and that Lord Wentworth has left all to her mother, and then to Lady Byron and children; but Byron is, _he says_, "a very miserable dog for all that."'
At the end of June, 1815, Augusta Leigh ended her visit, and returned to Six Mile Bottom. There seems to have been some unpleasantness between Augusta and Lady Byron during those ten weeks.
Two months later, on September 4, 1815, Augusta Leigh writes again to Hodgson:
'Your letter reached me at a time of much hurry and confusion, which has been succeeded by many events of an afflicting nature, and compelled me often to neglect those to whom I feel most pleasure in writing.... My brother has just left me, having been here since last Wednesday, when he arrived very unexpectedly. I never saw him _so_ well, and he is in the best spirits, and desired me to add his congratulations to mine upon your marriage.'
On November 15, 1815, Augusta Leigh arrived at 13, Piccadilly Terrace, on a long visit.
It cannot have been a pleasant experience for Augusta Leigh, this wretched period which culminated in a dire catastrophe for all concerned. Lord Lovelace tells us that, when Mrs. Leigh came to stay with them in November, Byron 'seemed much alienated from his sister, and was entirely occupied with women at the theatre.' And yet
'_the impressions of Mrs. Leigh's guilt had been forced into Lady Byron's mind chiefly by incidents and conversations which occurred while they were all under one roof._'
What may have given rise to these suspicions is not recorded--probably Byron's mystifications, which were all taken seriously. But there is no attempt to deny the fact that, during this painful time, Lady Byron owed deep gratitude to Mrs. Leigh, who had faithfully striven to protect her when ill and in need of sympathy. It was during this period that Lady Byron wrote the following cryptic note to Byron's sister:
'You will think me very foolish, but I have tried two or three times, and cannot _talk_ to you of your departure with a decent visage; so let me say one word in this way to spare my philosophy. With the expectations which I have, I never will nor can ask you to stay one moment longer than you are inclined to do. It would be the worst return for all I ever received from you. But, in this at least, I _am_ "truth itself" when I say that, whatever the situation may be, there is no one whose society is dearer to me, or can contribute more to my happiness. These feelings will not change under any circumstances, and I should be grieved it you did not understand them.