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112 THE BECOKD OF A VANISHED LIFE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
It Is The Afternoon Of A Hotfull Summer ...
I start , then , with a failure . I see that I must circumscribe lan . Very brief must be confession of a life which
my p my seems so Jong * to me . I can do little more than suggest ; you ., Herbert , must read between the old man ' s lines .
There is a little picture of me , painted when I was four years let old . the Think picture , if hel you p the can , words that , that as I was begin the . grey old uncle ; and
He M made y father a great was deal a merchant of money , an and d at lived one in time corresponding , a successful - st one yle . . He did not advocate people living to their meansbut he fully
believed that the future would y up ield him a large , fortune , and thought himself justified in keeping * up his position in society .
He thought highly of business ; both from an innate liking for the pursuit itselfand because it gave him wealthpowerand
consequence . He , despised , by comparison , all other , pursuits , , and had a special contempt for literature and art . He was
somewhat hard and shallow of nature , but was gifted with a strong will . His affections were not strong ; he was devoid of
imagination , and required from his own mind no higher powers of intellect than those necessary for success in trading life .
Success of the sort he desired , he attained ; and he was as contented with the general scheme of the universe as men of his
happy limitations usually are . His nerves were good , and his digestion excellent . Without being at all kind , he could hardly
be called unkind . It was difficult to love and difficult to dislike him . He married , strange to say , an artist ' s daughter . , My
mother brought him money ; brought hiin indeed a sum which , an at the art time ist ' s he daug m hter arried , she was had considerable no artist in feeling his eyes : . the Althoug artist h
temperament lay dormant , in her , to be transmitted to her its unhappy son . is The surrounded high gift , b beautiful all the always , but and so influences sad when
which possessor war against the beautifu y l and powers noblewas the only . possession she bequeathed to her elder child . , She was a
confirmed and character invalid . , The not marriage unkindly , was but not peevish happy , . weak There alike was in nothing health
congenial in the character , and but little tolerance in the conduct there of husban can be d no and wedded wife ; happ and iness without . There congeniality were incessant or tolerance quarrels ,
, leading dead ; and at last it is , to not almost for me com to plete unveil estrangement their quarrels . Both or to are decide long *
upon their disputes : enough , that they were unhappy , and their home miserable . It was a home without light or warmth ,
without love or intellect , and my childhood was full of bitter lasted experiences throug and hout painful my life associations . "We never , the outlive effects wholl of y which the effects have
influences of an unhappy which home saddened in childhood our earl — v we vouth never . quite outgrow the
112 The Becokd Of A Vanished Life.
112 THE BECOKD OF A VANISHED LIFE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1864, page 112, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041864/page/40/
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