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It is a wonderful,
touching, baffling story.
Stella he had known and taught in her young maidenhood at Sir William
Temple's. As has been said, she was called the daughter of his steward and
housekeeper, but conjectures are rife that she was Sir William's own
child. When Swift removed to Ireland, she came, at Swift's request, with a
matron friend, Mrs. Dingley, to live near him. Why he did not at once
marry her, and why, at last, he married her secretly, in 1716, are
questions over which curious readers have puzzled themselves in vain, and
upon which, in default of evidence, some perhaps uncharitable conclusions
have been reached. The story of their association may be found in the
_Journal to Stella_.
With Miss Hester Vanhomrigh (Vanessa) he became acquainted in London, in
1712: he was also her instructor; and when with her he seems to have
forgotten his allegiance to Stella. Cadenus, as he calls himself, was too
tender and fond: Vanessa became infatuated; and when she heard of Swift's
private marriage with Stella, she died of chagrin or of a broken heart.


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