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      1168 The Leader. {Saturday

      1168 THE LEADER . { Saturday

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      We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...

      We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Goethe .

      Xii. March 9, 1852. I^Fgpielen , I Never...

      XII . March 9 , 1852 . i ^ fgpiELEN , I never loved you as I did while I read your letter , just imi received , and from which I dissent more than I ever did from 5 «^ l | what you have said . You do not do justice to your own strength . Ulfl | p Valperduta is to us a haven , not because it is secluded from the G ^^^ sa WO j . i ^ 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 ; 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 Jiimself only to what he is in himself he retains but a wreck of what he was bora 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 " unworthv . " 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 ear 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 sleep 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 Julie , to tell me that she had arrived at Liverpool . " I bad waited long enough , " she said ; " the reason for my stopping longer had ceased ; I have finished that which I wished to bring with me , to surprise you ; and I longed to throw myself into your arms . " Of course , cither summons would have sufficed . It was time for me to go , although Audlcy , who sees nothing beneath the table-cloth , and suspects nothing to contain what is wrong beneath the surface , except unbroken egg-shells and unaudited accounts , continued his gentlemanly hospitality , uninterrupted by the tueit storm raging around him . "Muck looks wen : levelled at me from more than one fair face ; I was evidently regarded as a monster of lawlessness and ingratitude towards that estimable gentleman King ; who must have given some romantic version of my acts towards him . IIis manner was a model of expressive art : he wus grave and melancholy , and from time to time turned his eyes upon me with u half-abstracted air of frank compassion , as a candid saint would regard aJost sinner ; he handed riie the good things of this world and of breakfast as though they wen : the sole remaining nexus and solace between us ; and while he thus " disarmed every hostile act from me , he implied to those who listened to his own actions that he was a wronged , forgiving , condescending Christian , who knew how to treat a fallen fellow-creature according to his merits . When 1 announced my departure , Mru . Audley received " the fact with the slightest hint of a sneer in her face , aa if my evasion was to he expected ; and the other fair avengers bade „ , « farewell in a pointed manner which implied that my conscience would tell me what they meant .

      Before I had well entered Edwardes ' s passage , I was lost in a storm eurls , laughter , tears , and kisses , through which I discovered the identity of dear Julie—so grown , so altered , so much the same , that recognit ion 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 you 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 , 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 sweet 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 ia 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 you told your father , Margaret V "Of what ?" " Of Stanhope . " " No , he could not understand that , and there is no necessity . But that is not the difficulty . I am under no trouble about myself . My father is hot 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 im-!„„„ ^^ „ . ; ,-, + 1-. . T , »/» ifi /] an /< p r » f or » n tw rlniin-ht . fir ! Vagabond as I am , I pulses win the confidence of son or d hter ! Vagabond as I am , 1

      , or aug 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 . Ag ain , 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 rig ht to expect his confidence , nor y ours—unless

      you require me to act for you . ) t " There need be no secret for you , Tristan ; and we will tell you all ; but " Tell me at least , when he is to marry you . " " Never . " " What then am I to say to y our father ?" " Nothing of that , Tristan ; no question respecting Walter a nd me can tell

      arise for nearly two years . Think no more of that . He or I will you all we mean presently . But meanwhile , were Walter a stranger to me , 1 Bhould not marry this stranger ; who has 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 bis creditor ! Well , that w ' moral ; ' but you will not wish it so . And my father , whom you can poisuade to do anything , will think all rig ht when you have settled it , whether with Markham or me . " . ,. I went to Johnson at once , and in five minutes reconciled linn to «» fate . He soon forgot the matrimonial project in the idea of a « ou | n " T alliance . And then , resolved to exhaust all sources of troub e l > ut « .... expectant of a storm , I went without delay to Markham , and told

      that Margaret had sent for me . " And she accepts ?" " She refuses . " " Damnation ! " ¦ , . „ ,, Utol He looked at me fiercely , us if 1 had refused ; and taking up «• » that lay on the table , asked if he should shoot me . He « v « l « i . tly . n know how to get out of his mortify ing position- He st . ll kept ; _ pointed at me . He mig ht fire if he liked , 1 said . I d , d m | t th | was loaded ; but turning it from me to the window he hu I . it ^ shooting through an upper pane ; and then threw the pistol >

      room , smashing something as it fell , P , oWinK uuU 8 C ( l He broke the silence with an apologetic laugh . I am gi own fc to refusal ! " he cried .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04121852/page/20/