15Jun1872, Meeting Poor Lady Mayo

LONDON, Saturday, June 15th, 1872.
—I dined at the Burrells' to meet poor, poor Ly. Mayo [FN: Lord Mayo, Viceroy of India, had been assassinated a few months before.], who is rather the better, Ly. B. thinks, for seeing a new face. She touched me much, in the indescribable way the Queen used to do, by her unaffectedness and straight-forward¬ness under the dreadful affliction, exerting herself to talk and take interest in things. Her eldest and 2nd sons were there—pleasant civil fellows, particularly nice and considerate to her. But it was terrible to sit there, with the thought incessantly present : "This is the widow of a murdered man" — it so disconcerted me that I could hardly talk sense.