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her in his lifetime12, almost forty years after Hart terminated his relationship with Ayaou he still said of her: “Ayaou is a very good little girl & well-behaved.”13
However, although Hart seems to have resumed his sexual relationship with Ayaou in late 1864, he did not go back to his old ways. Hart increasingly thought more about something other than women. As early as 23 July 1864 he writes in his diary:
“I used to revel in reveries about women; hour and hour could I spend without the slightest sense of weariness or satiety, in picturing to myself the delights and concomitants of female society. Now, however, when I attempt such a reverie, I soon lapse from it into something much serious, and cannot keep it up.” (Smith, Fairbank, Burner 1991; 160-1)
He presumes that “for the future some thing other than woman will chiefly attract me. I wonder what folly it will be: will it be love of money, ambition, or what?” (ibid) It indicates that between 1863 and 1864 Hart went through a crucial stage in his life: he transformed himself from an emotionally and psychologically unsettled youngster to a mature man. With this transition Hart was more resolute about his determination to refrain from womanising and in his diary entry for 4 February 1866, he writes: “Went to Church today, & took the sacrament. I am determined, with God's help, not to go back into my old ways, and I must fortify myself against the temptations I am so soon to meet by availing myself of those means of grace which Christians use.” (ibid: 344) Since then “The devils had met their match. For the next 45 years the I.G. would grow increasingly famous for his self-control in all circumstances.” (ibid: 130)
Thus it is possible to draw the following conclusions. Hart started his sexual relationship with Ayaou in 1857, the relationship ceased temporarily between early summer 1863 and late August 1864 - a crucial period of time in his life when he prepared himself to be and finally became I.G. However, Hart resumed his sexual relationship with Ayaou in the autumn of 1864 resulting in the birth of their third child sometime after June 5th 1865.