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October 2, 1852.] THE LEADER. 953
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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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.
Vii. Harley-Street, Jan. 13, 1852. Gw§ O...
•~« r , f r » ain and asked her where she was hurt . Her head , her d her whole shoulder and side seemed to have been wounded . arD She is bl eeding rather fast , " said Edwardes , in an under tone , " and s be removed at once . Can you , " he continued to her , " bear a she 7 M " ments of pa j nj 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 A tenderly as possible into a secure machine ; her poor , bleeding head fell an on jjjs shoulder , and he lifted her forth into the cold , darkening air . A 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 f tset the smile ' of happiness that came unchecked over her pale face , with its unclosed eyes and its weary pain .
Walter ' s Up and beard were reddened where he had touched her cheek . A lantern came at the summons of Edwardes ' s peremptory voice ; and fter a hasty examination , he walked away to reconnoitre resources of the nlace ; 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 lay 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 ' face of unchanging patience , like the face of a minwtering 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 dmihly 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 fouHfl 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 . iLdwardes ' s face , already possessed by the stern fixity of active duty , became almost bitter as he saw Ysei ^ C ; and approaching to hear a report of Margaret , I could not avoid fferhearin g the short conversation between the two . Yseult went up to him , laid both her hands on his shoulders , and looking m liis face , said , with an air of entreaty as much as questioning— " Can you save her to us ?"
Edwardes folded liis arms as though to harden himself in face of his wile s elairn upon his feeling , and answered with a cold , sarcastic uir , that 'wtoimded me— " Yes , / can save her . But of what use is my skill and "" xmr to me ? What reward shall I get for it ?" Reward ! Edward ! " Yseult drew back , in a sort of terrified amazement
oppose , at the unaccountable display of self-feeling at such a time . I turned afterwards how it was that Edwardes had been wrought up into tn"it parox ysm of bitter excitement mid perverse self-vindication . ion , reward , " he answered . " The labourer is worthy of his hire . ' . "" ' - ast worth something—say as a surgeon only , atill that is soraelm f ? - You know what I mean . Will you give me—my wages ? " The f lestu
« m was put with a covered smile . s « ult looked at him far an instant , standing erect , and piercing into o /! > as '' sne W (! rt ! trying to solve a living problem before her . With-< Hing ing countenance , without saying a word , she seemed to abandon 1 ? Y S l ' smt > and replied by turning away to go back to Margaret . I ' m- f Ult '" ' Edwardes , with u sudden change , " come here . Do not 111 <> r Margaret . She is terribly hurt ; but if 1 were to die for it , she nt 1 )(! . "fi «»» ¦ " » « ver . » eric ? * threw herself into his arms , clutching him with convulsive liiin ^ ' m' ( l 1 ) Ur >' . K ner face in his breast One instant he held her to ' » "d then , putting her into my hands , he said , " Take her back to H ^ und como to me . " press" ' un ' r drowned eyes , resumed her steadfast self-possession , and tu her' ^ i Uly lmU ( * toIceu tlmt * S Ht ftt once K ° witl * Edwardes , returned
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 way 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 weight 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 oi 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 are now citing an abuse of the rite as a 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 . Wo cannot undertake to love ; but we do love or do not , as may happen . " fi
I beg your pardon , " he answered ; " we can do much by trying . If we cannot love , as you call it , by a direct action of the will , we can encourage circumstances favourable to ailcction . 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 ; 1 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 Mirths , Marriages , and Deaths . " " You talk , " said Edwardes , growing warmer , "like an unmarried man , who has never known what it is tp grow through the different stages of the—the passion . You eannot ; know what it is to feel the first enthusiasm of youthful love giving place to that soberer friendship which Jum , I grout ,
not the same illusions as the other , but is far more respectable and practically beneficial . To be a companion to her husband ; to aid him in his pursuits , at least by domestic ; support ; to comfort him in toil ; to—in short , to be a wife to him is the duty of her who has undertaken thfttthat duty—who has at least undertaken to do so . Remember , that marriage is indissoluble , and that a woman has no riylit to convert a husband into a widower in her lifetime . " " But where the necessity for compulsion ?"
October 2, 1852.] The Leader. 953
October 2 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 953
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02101852/page/21/
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