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XII . Itfarcli 9 , 1852 . j ^ SSgELEN , 1 never loved you as I did while I read your letter , just lESll receivecl > and from wnicn J dissent more than I ever did from IbhiI what y ° u have said * ^ ou do not do J * ce to y ° own stren g - Ifbdia Valperduta is to us a haven , not because it is secluded from the world , but because it is a fixed point to rally our wandering feet and our ideas . No man is in his duty who shuts himself out from the world i nor can he even keep himself to himself . We live so much more in others than in ourselves , that if a man seeks to limit himself only to what he is in himself he retains but a wreck of what he was born to be . Nor can we pick and choose a beloved few in whom to live : if you , dearest Helen , were to seek to live only for Giorgio , closing your heart against sorrows and anxieties which others may bring with them , even your heart would grow self-calculating , inert , and your capacity for loving would shrink within you . Organic life cannot be shut up , or defined , or separated from the open air of vitality , for then it will die with its own essence perverted to a poison . We avoid the storms only to be suffocated . And why exclude " the unworthy . " Who are the unworthy ? Are they not the unfortunate , the misguided , the blind ? And if they seek to come back , is it not that they have still the worthy within them ? Is it not the voice of God speaking as clearly as in the conscience of the purest ? Do not let even the deceptions practised by the weak deceive you . They may be deluded by their own diseased phantasies , but we know that never can the human heart refuse allegiance to the divinest influences ; and that if it thinks itself case-hardened " in the cunningest wisdom , it will taste of retribution still , and through vain depravities will once more long for the pure waters of its native home , the natural sunshine of its infant sports , —for
the child never dies within us . And you are wrong to class Giulia Sidney as one of those same " unworthy . " She may be so at times . At other times she is that which Sidney loved ; and she is never less unworthy than she is in Valperduta . I do not for a moment believe that you can be " jealous ; " not only because you are happily exempt from that intellectual disease , but because Giorgio is the last man to be led from you by a woman like Giulia . Although he is full of life and generous blood , there is an inflexible force and majesty about the man that could never be bent . His heart , indeed , has expanded under your love , like iron long lying in the sun ; but is the work of years to be altered in days ? I can see him now , with his stalwart but tapering limbs , his tall form , his ample chest , his black pointed beard , his cheerful solemn countenance , his great iron voice , murmuring music when it falls towards your car as the soft breeze sings in the slumbering trumpet . To me , who am more unstable , Giulia might be dangerous . Dangerous , I say , because she who makes man desecrate love with a counterfeit of it , where no love exists , is a syren of mischief . But in ^ Valperduta . the dear shade of Yseult would make us all graver and better than Giulia or I may be elsewhere . Admit her then , and welcome her . Wash her feet , sustain her with mountain wine , and lay her to sloop in our valley ' s healthful quiet . I find it impossible for me to remain in Cheshire , however I might desire it ; I am certain to be summoned up to London ; and this time I had a double summons . One was a note running thus : — " My faithful Tristan , —I want you . " Margaret . " The other , scarcely less laconic , was from dear cousin Julio , to tell me that she bad arrived at Liverpool . " I had waited long enough , " she said ; " the reason for my stopping longer bad ceased ; 1 have finished that which I wished to bring with me , to surprise you ; and 1 longed to throw myself into your arms . " Of course , cither summons would have sufficed . Jt was time for me to go , although Audley , who sees nothing beneath the table-cloth , and suspects nothing to contain what is wrong beneath the aurfaee , except unbroken egg-shells and unaudited accounts , continued his gentlemanly hospitality , uninterrupted by the tacit storm raging around him . Mack looks were levelled at me from more than one fair face ; I was evidently regarded as ji monster of lawlessness and ingratitude : towards that estimable gentleman King ; who must buve given some romantic version of my acts towards him . His manner was a model of expressive art : he was grave and melancholy , and from time to time turned bis eyes upon me with a half-abstracted air of frank compassion , us a candid saint would regard a lost . sinner ; lie handed me the good things of this world and of breakfast us though they were the sole remaining nexus and solace between \\ h ; and while he thus disarmed every hostile act from me , he implied to those who listened to his own actions that he was si wronged , forgiving , condescending Christian , who knew bow to treat a fallen fellow-creature according to bis merits . When 1 announced my departure , Mrs . Audley received the fact with the slightest hint of a sneer in her face , as if my evasion whh to be expected ; and the other fair avengers bade me farewell in a pointed manner which implied that my conscience would tell me what they meant .
\ jX _ 1 . ( Xi \ j io iiv / b tliv > Ulltl ^ y uuuv * a * v ^ * . v ** w v * . w » u .. * . x . * . - * . y father is not a stage tyrant father ; and my mother , although she is grieved , and I think puzzled , has always indulged me more than any of us—indeed she never did anything else . But I want you to console my father , and to put a stop to his hopes that he can persuade me . " As I looked at Margaret , who spoke with the most absolute peremptoriness , I recalled what her mother had said , about her not having given any trouble to her parents . How little they ascribed her unfailing obedience to the strong will which now made her mistress of herself so soon ! How little had they , —content to rule the obedient , to conquer the mutinous , worked to understand their children , to follow the varying impulses , or win the confidence of son or daughter ! Vagabond as I am , I almost hesitated to encourage Margaret in her venturous course . She said no more , calmly awaiting the expression of my willingness to do her bidding . Again I asked her if she had reflected ? She replied only by a smile . Again , with importunate affection , asked her how I could reason with her father , if I did not know her own intentions ? " Do you not know them ? " she said ; " has not Walter told you ?" " No ; and I have no right to expect his confidence , nor yours—unless you require me to act for you . " " There need be no secret for you , Tristan ; and we will tell you all ; but" Tell me at least , when be is to marry you . " " Never . " " What then urn I to say to your father ?" " Nothing of that , Tristan ; no question respecting Walter and me can arise for nearly two years . Think no more of that . lie or I will tell you all we mean presently . But meanwhile , were Waller a stranger to me , should not marry this stranger ; who bus no knowledge of me , no right to me . You understand that . I need tell you no more . My father , poor man , would think little of giving me up , even to his creditor ! Well , that is ' moral ; ' but you will not wish it so . And my father , whom you <•»» I ' ' suade to do anything , will think all right when you have settled it , whether with Markbam or me . " I went to Johnson at once , and in five minutes reconciled him to his fate . He soon forgot the matrimonial project in the idea of h common " alliance . And then , resolved to exhaust all sources of trouble , but n <> unexpectant of h storm , I went without delay to Markbam , and told Ii «" that Margaret had sent for me . " And she accepts V " " She refuses . " " Damnation 1 " . . lie looked at me fiercely , as if / hud refused ; and taking up » lj 1 Hl <> that . Hy on the table , asked if he should shoot me . He evidently * hd ™ j know bow to get out of his mortifying position . He still kept the pis ^ pointed at me . lie might fire if lie liked , I said . I did not think tlMi--was loaded ; but turning it from me to the window , lie tirv . il at the h ^ y » shooting through an upper pane ; and then threw the p istol across room , smashing something as it fell . . ,, ll 8 ( . ( l He broke the silence with an apologetic laugh . " 1 am growing to refusal ! " he cried .
Ult JL uiii «/ p ^ jl ^ s t ^ . *_ r * . * - * . % / Before I had well entered Edwardes ' s passage , I was lost in a storm of curls , laughter , tears , and kisses , through which I discovered the identity of dear Julie—so grown , so altered , so much the same , that recognition and strangeness were confounded . I am so proud of her ; for it has only been through her that I know what it is to be a brother . I want yon to admire her before you see her . And yet if I cannot describe her to you , for all I could say would mislead you . If I were to tell you that she is only of a middle height , you would not imagine how tall and lithesome she looks if I were to tell you how audaciously gay and lively she is , you would not fancy the tender grace and delicacy which temper every sally . You never for an instant fear for her wildest moods ; and yet , when I say that , you . will think her studied , though she is as wild as a honeysuckle . Her voice is so like the child's , and yet so loudly ringing , and yet again so sweel ; and just . But description is baffled to follow perfection run wild . I dare not confess that she is not strictly handsome , for then you could not conceive the laughing loveliness which snatches away your breath , and makes even Women look upon her with doting . When I had become accustomed to the atmosphere of pleasant tumult I discerned other friends—Yseult , with the stedfast sunshine of her golden countenance ; and Margaret , with her grave brow . Margaret is graver , as majestic still , but thinner than she was . Her hurt still weakens her health , and she is beginning to learn the cares of life . I was impatient to know her commands , and she did not keep me in suspense , but took me into the drawing-room . Margaret carries Yseult ' s directness still farther , and silently proceeds to her purpose with instant step , like the goddess of an ancient bas-relief . Markham had " proposed " for her , to her father ; and there was the usual difficulty—Johnson bewildered and angry at her refusal ; her mother taking down Mason on Self-Knowledge with the most cutting resignation . " And do you refuse ? " I asked . " Of course . Independently of Walter , I do not know this man . " " And have } 'ou told your father , Margaret ?" "Of what ?" " Of Stanhope . " " ¦ No , he could not understand that , and there is no necessity . But + tiof- 4 c ? *!< - »*¦ + Vie » riiflfirtni + ^ r T om nnrlf > r nr * t : rr » iiV « lp > «> V > niit . rnvsplf IVTir
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Goethe .
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1168 THE LEADER . [ SArtntaay ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1852, page 1168, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1963/page/20/
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