GOVERNESSES WITHOUT SCRUPLES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—May I disclaim the honour your reviewer does me in comparing the character of Lucille Debelleyme in my novel Forget-me-Not, to Becky Sharp ? The character of the governess was evolved entirely from that of Henrietta Desporte_s as revealed in the reports of the De Praslin case. Both the real woman, whom I tried to recreate, and Thackeray's immortal adventuress seem to me to have little in common, either in their characters or their stories, and Becky Sharp was certainly not in my mind when I was endeavouring to visualize the woman who became Mrs. Henry Field. Becky Sharp was never concerned in a murder and did not preserve an implacable respectability to the end—I think that the likeness between her and the heroine of the De Praslin case is no more than this—both were governesses and both were unscrupulous.—! am, Sir, &c., JOSEPH SHEARING. C /a Messrs. Heinemann, Ltd., 99 Great Russell Street, London, W .C.1.
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