because suicide was considered scandalous, disreputable, and sinful at the time, which might have damaged godwin's business, the family told various stories regarding imlay's death in order to cover up the truth, including that she had gone on vacation, that she had died of a cold in wales, that she had died of an "inflammatory fever", that she was living with her mother's sisters, or, if forced to admit suicide, that imlay killed herself because shelley loved mary godwin and not her. neither percy nor mary mention imlay's death in their surviving letters from this time. claire clairmont claimed in a letter to byron that percy became ill because of her death, but as holmes notes, there is no other evidence for this assertion. yet locke writes that shelley told byron he felt "a far severer anguish" over imlay's suicide than over harriet's (his wife's) suicide just two months later.