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    ELIZABETH VON RECKE; 163

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    ~*» ' Past I. There Are Some Individuals...

    themselves to attribute complete mental _incapacity to her , notwithstanding her liveliness and amiability ; and this mischievous

    allegation was supported on the other hand by the jealousy of those who could not conceal from , themselves , as they happily could not prevent ,

    the promise that the already lovely child would bloom into an extraordinaril This jealousy y coul beautiful d only woman find consolation , and would in ecli persuading pse all around itself that her .

    the beauty it so much feared would yet lack that expression which lends a living grace to loveliness of feature ; so that in the unanimous

    opinion of her relatives , this charming young girl was but a poor shallow creature whose only attraction was outward beauty . Thus

    misjudged , any further _cultivation of her intellect was all but abandonedand attention was henceforth directed to the care of a

    "beautiful person , . The wind was scarcely permitted to blow upon her , lest it should injure the delicate red and white of her lovely complexion ;

    only in a well-closed carriage might she drive from one of her grandmother ' s estates to anotherand even then she was enveloped in a

    veil , through which she could , only see nature , already dearly loved , as through a fog .

    In point of moral training her position was still worse ; for the ladies of her grandmother ' s household were accustomed to compel the

    poor child , by dint of terrible threatenings , or if these did not suffice , of absolute cruelties , to take part in intrigues , and to utter

    absolute falsehoods , in order to screen any misdemeanors that might be committed , from the censures of the severe mistress of the house .

    So soon as the wrong was perpetrated , the little sinner would flee into some hidden cornerand give herself up to her childish

    indig-, nation , pouring out all the words of wrath she could think of against her tormentors ; and then , in a paroxysm of remorse , praying over

    all the prayers she knew , one after the other , that she might make her peace , as she thought , with her offended God . Then would come the

    remembrance that the shade of her mother had seen her sin , and , in a fresh burst of griefshe would run off to her trusty nursewho alone

    could console and soothe , these stings of conscience . , Under such treatment and such influences the child readied her

    eleventh year , and then returned to her father ' s house , where her stepmothera virtuous and hihly-cultivated womanreceived her with

    all the , tenderness of a loving g mother . The gentle , child had entertained a sincere affection for her grandmother , but it had been

    repressed by continual reprimand and chastisement , till fear restrained all expression of love ; the kind receptionthereforewhich she met

    with at her father ' s house awoke sensations , in . her , soul to which she had hitherto been a stranger . Now , too , she might dare to look

    the on nature country with with unveiled her belove glance d stepmother ; and the first , and time standing she drove at the out open into

    carriage window , saw a stream of running water rippling under the that bridge , in they a transport were driving of ecstatic over , tears the novel , she si threw ght affe her cted arms her round so much her ,

    vox . v . M 2

    Elizabeth Von Recke; 163

    ELIZABETH VON _RECKE ; 163

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/19/