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at the sign of pain , and asked her where she was hurt . Her head , her arm and her whole shoulder and side seemed to have been wounded . " She is bleeding rather fast , " said Edwardes , in an under tone , " and she must be removed at once . Can you , " he continued to her , " bear a few moments of pain , Margaret ? We must take you out of the carriage . " " I can bear anything , if Walter may lift , me . " Walter ' s arms were round her in a second , framing themselves as firmly and tenderly as possible into a secure machine ; her poor , bleeding head fell upon his shoulder , and he lifted her forth into the cold , darkening air . As he laid her down upon the soft ground , he kissed her on the cheek . At
the moment , I was stooping over her in the twilight , and I shall never forget the smile of happiness th ' at came unchecked over her pale face , with its unclosed eyes and its weary pain . Walter ' s lip and beard were reddened where he had touched her cheek . A lantern came at the summons of Edwardes ' s peremptory voice ; and after a hasty examination , he walked away to reconnoitre resources of the place ; while we stayed supporting and watching our dear charge—for now the many traits by which the poor girl had won our affection were compressed by the shock into strong love . Already the bank was strewed with
other people more or less hurt , and the cause of the accident was proclaimed by many angry tongues . Some men had been slow in moving a stone truck , which ought not to have been on the line at all ; and the neglect of one minute had probably caused death or life-long injury . We were not far from a station , and several houses were close at hand . Presently Edwardes returned with two men , and a hastily-composed litter ; though how Edwardes had found the materials for it , whatever they were , I could have not guessed even if I had tried . He helped us to lav-Margaret on it , and told us to follow a respectable old lady who now showed herself ; and he went off to assist elsewhere . In a few minutes
Margaret was quietly lying on a side-table , converted to a bed , in the parlour of an inn . We then had to wait ! How terrible that was ! How often we looked over the silent sufferer ; whose bleeding neck Yseult was holding as Edwardes had directed her . " I can feel her press my hand , " said Stanhope , his reddened lip trembling like a girl ' s under its dark hair . Yseult whispered to me to wipe away the stain , lest Margaret should see it . How indignant we began to grow at Edwardes for not coming—at least I did , and I am sure Stanhope did ; but Yseult ' s face of unchanging patience , like the face of a ministering angel , conscious only of the service , and unsubdued by the pain , showed no signs of that unjust impatience .
Presently he came—sudden , silent , direct , and at once proceeded to cut off the clothes from Margaret ' s left shoulder and arm ; Yseult and Stanhope assisting . An arm of living sculpture lay bare and helpless ; then a shoulder so beautiful that its very beauty rendered pity doubly tender . I drew back : my eyes , consecrated neither by fellow-womanhood , nor love , nor science , nor necessity , had no right to see farther ; and I went forth to view the field of suffering . Already I found that Edwardes , assisted by a young surgeon who was among the passengers , had distributed the sufferers into proper care ; one or two local surgeons had arrived ; and a silent busy scene was going on in many of the rooms of the inn . In one the moans were frightful .
It was not very long before Edwardes joined me in the passage of the inn ; followed almost immediately by Yseult . Edwardes ' s face , already possessed by the stern fixity of active duty , became almost bitter as he saw iseult ; and approaching to hear a report of Margaret , I could not avoid overhearing the short conversation between the two . Yseult went ) up to him , laid both her hands on his shoulders , and looking 111 his luce , said , with an air of entreaty as much as questioning— " Can you save her to us ?"
Edwardes folded his arms as though to harden himself in face of his wile s claim upon his feeling , and answered with a cold , sarcastic air , that astounded me— " Yes , / can save her . But of what use is my skill and ii'mur to me ? What reward shall I get for it ?" " Reward ! Udwanl ! " Yseult drew back , in a sort of terrified amazement s"ppose , at the unaccountable display of self-feeling at such a time . I i-arned afterwards how it was that Edwardes had been wrought up into that paroxysm of bitter excitement and perverse self-vindication .
i es , reward , " lie answered . " The labourer is worthy of his hire l "i at least worth something—say us a surgeon only , still that is somell ""^; You know what I mean . Will you . give me—my wages ? " The question was put with a covered smile . scull , looked at him for an instant , standing erect , and piercing into (> \< 's , as i | she were trying to solve a living problem before her . With' <' llllll £ ni £ countenance , without saying a word , she seemed to abandon »<> peh \ ss pur . snj ^ mid replied by turning away to go hack to Margaret . » seiilt ! " cried Kdwartlcs , with a sudden change , " come hen ; . Do not ( ill > ii ) v M | l | 1 Ki " « l . She is terribly hurt ; but if I wen ; to die for it , she sl " » 'il « M , e well again as ever . " ' _ — . —
^ o . wile threw herself into his arms , clutching him with convulsive ' /•' tf . V , uiul burying her face in his breast . One instant , he held her to I , !'" ' l tll ( ' " . putting her into my hands , In ; said , " Take her back to Mll m , d ec , nie to n , e . " nre S ( " IC < ' ' lt : r drowned eyes , resumed her steadfast Hell-possession , mid ssn , £ mv | mu ( l iu t () kcn tlmt l H ¦ ht at O | K , L , witll XMwurde . s , returned fcU Her charge .
. I shall not sicken you by describing the sort of human shambles through which we had to wade . I have seen death in various forms—by violence , by squalid decay , by convulsive disease ; but I have never yet been in a field of battle , and I never yet saw such a slaughterous scene as that made by this new invention of civilization . But in the midst of all the agony , the wretchedness of that scene , it was admirable to witness the effect and influence of mastery like Edwardes ' s . The calm command over himself and all around—the sustainment for suffering , the prompt alleviation , the obedience enforced on the rudest—the wav in which the rebel contortions
of untutored agony were stayed , in which the clumsy slowness of untutored help grew ready and adroit , under his short words—were tributes to his powers which kept me in constant admiration . I felt the influence on myself . And I saw how , through all the harshness of command and selfpossession , there was strong sympathy and working kindness . He must have laboured hard , with a divine gift of genius , to acquire that power , He must , for all his wayward harshness , perhaps exasperated by that severe labour , have a great heart , whose every emotion of kindness , endowed with power , is a result for others . My friendship for him , shocked as it had been at times , was infinitely strengthened that day . He was truly our master for the time ; and the servant never forgets his apprenticeship .
I never was more exhausted , not even after that long pull with Sidney when the piratical rascals of Porto Venere were upon us , than when I lay down that night . Before we went to bed , we found that Stanhope had been cut in the head and bruised in the shoulder — an imitation of Margaret ' s hurt , without the breaking of the arm . He said he had forgotten it , and I believe him ; although Edwardes thought that it was a mere subterfuge to avoid arresting him with other patients , or to avoid a lengthened summons away from Margaret . When I awoke in the
morning , I heard that the dear girl was worse , much worse , and that Yseult had not slept for an instant ; but the sufferer was better again before Edwardes went to town . Her arm was set favourably ; but " shock " and fear nearly made the over-confident Edwardes fail in his word . Since that night he has almost lived on the railway ; coming down twice a-day , although most of the other patients have been removed—one or two by death . As Margaret has improved in health , the watch upon her has been less severe , and we have persuaded Ysenlt to take her share of rest .
As the weig ht of anxiety was lightened , Edwardes ' s asperity returned ; and at length we had a burst of it more painfully intelligible . It was on Friday evening . He had meant to return to town , but delayed unaccountably , until it was too late for the train ; walking restlessly about the room . Yseult was half reclining on a sofa , reading ; I was sitting on an easy chair , half asleep , half reading the paper . It contained a long mysterious " disclosure" of a case in " high life , " which was " soon to occupy the
gentlemen of the long robe in the Ecclesiastical Courts , " with an application for " restitution of conjugal rights . " Edwardes must have seen by the part of the paper to which my eyes were turned , what I was reading , and he made some indifferent allusion to it . I expressed my amazement at the recurrence of such cases ; and to my still greater amazement , Edwardes defended the husband . At first I thought it was a grim joke ; but he gravely persisted .
" Yes , " he said ; " life and its duties are not a sport . When we enter upon a responsible condition , we undertake responsibilities to others which are not to be thrown off or evaded . At the altar , the husband and the wife reciprocally swear to love , and neither is free to withdraw that pledge . " " But , my dear fellow , " I said , " you arc now citing an abuse of the rite as u reason for an abuse of the institution . At the altar you who marry undertake , on oath , that which cannot be undertaken . Love is not a duty , but a fact . We cannot , undertake to love ; but we do love or do not , as may happen . "
" 1 beg your pardon , " he answered ; "' we can do much by trying . If we cannot , lore , as you call it , by : i direct action of the will , we can encourage circumstances favourable to affection . Much of the dissension of married life arises from caprice , or from a perverse resolve to recognise no love but that which can withstand every attempt , to suppress it—the love , in short , of novels . " " No ; I have what , you would call a practical view of the matter . But you perplex me , by taking your stand on the altar—you who profess to recognize no ' superstitious sanctions . " No more 1 do . "
" And yet , it ; is only at the altar that you undertake to love ; I believe I am right in supposing that you enter into no such undertaking to the Registrar of Births , Marriages , and . Deaths . " " You talk , " said l ' jdwardes , growing warmer , " like an unmarried man , who has never known what , it is to grow through the different ; stages of the the passion . You cannot know what , it is to feel the fiist enthusiasm
of youthful love giving place to that ; soberer friendship which has , 1 grunt , not the same illusions as the other , but is fur more respectable and practically beneficial . To be a companion to her husband ; to aid him in his pursuits , at least by domestic support , ; to ccmifort him in toil ; to—ia short , to be a wife to him is the duty of her who has undertaken thatthat duty— -who lias at least undertaken to do so . 'Remember , that marriage is indissoluble , and that a woman has no rit / fit to convert u husband into a widower in her lifetime . " " But where the necessity for compulsion < "'
Untitled Article
October 2 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 953
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 953, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1954/page/21/
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