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    " Where ! where ? " He looked round , as if he did not understand my forgetting the where ; but then resumed- ^— " We were speaking exactly of such a case—of a wife who refuses to be a wife to her husband ; and whom the law , " he added , with violence , " will force to return to her duty . " I was shocked and silenced . A light suddenly burst upon me : Edwardes was , incited by some degree of parallel in the newspaper , stating his own case , and I was the object through whom he was now speaking at another . This explained circumstances before unintelligible to me . I wished to drop the subject , but he would not let me . " You cannot answer that , " he said , ' I suppose you state the law of your country as it is , " I rejoined ; " but you ascribe to it a tyranny that seems to be horrible , revolting—one against morals . I insist that to love is a spontaneous growth , not to be forced by the will : it is a fact , not a duty ; and the absence of it is also a fact , not a breach of duty . But to treat indifference as love !" " Go on . View it practically . A woman is given to man for his companion—for the prevention of vice , says the prayer book ; and she has no right , I say , to make him a widower in her lifetime . " " I do view it practically . I reply that love is a fact not a duty ; that love , the mysterious power which subdues us the one to the other , is a condition not to be undergone where love meets indifference ; for if it do , both are disgraced . No , I am wrong—the unwilling may be outraged , but not disgraced . Love which obtrudes itself upon indifference , desecrates itself ; since it consents to undergo its divine submission before cold eyes not equally consecrated . And if without love—if only with what it is vile to call ' passion '—if only asserting convenient right—Oh ! Edwardes , it is horrible that any creature capable of loving , especially capable as a noble and tender woman must be , should be forced to undergo the hideous mockery of love . It is abominable . " " I grant you , " cried Edwardes , taking a perverse pleasure in the discussion , and in probing his own wound—Yseult , who had been reading with resolute pertinacity , now laid down her book , rose from the sofa and left the room . After she had gone Edwardes made a long pause of silence , walking heavily up and down ; and then he suddenly resumed . " I grant you that there may be cases of cruelty , and I have known them . I do not speak as a bigot . As to the altar , I assuredly need not rely on that . But I speak practically . I grant you that there are cases in which there is much cruelty . I have known them . I have known the case of a girl , young , manied in total ignorance , to whom the very first aspect of matrimony approached in such inconsiderate and brutal abruptness , that terror seized her , from which she never recovered . She was a patient of mine—a patient rather to my skill in reasoning and persuasion than in drugs : but I must confess that it was a horrible endurance , that life of hers . One does not wonder at repugnance in such cases . It may be terror . I have known another case of a rough selfish ogre wedded to a delicate fairy , who—but I will not scarify your ears with that . It is horrible to think of—midnight , and no rescue possible—not once , but always . No escape ! ' Bight' was very like crime there . " " But , " I said , not unwilling to stop his morbid revel in the shocking , " are there no cases short of such , —no minor moral , or even physical brutalities ? lias the drunkard , with tainted words of endearment , a r ' ujht to invade the love of a woman who aeeeepted him before he was corrupted " " It is a difficult question . Yes , I know , —there are shoals of cases . We talk of « i young girl prostituted for position to souk ; old rascal , and forget that decrepitude is not always the most revolting trait . It is frightful that any brute incubus should have a right to appropriate a human creature with an independent soul , and that human being probably a timid and delicate one ; to be without any help of interference . [ t is odious . But we were not speaking of such cases . We were only saying , that , as it niways happens , the first vehemence and romantic illusion of passion passes ; and because a soberer feeling supervenes , a woman has no r ' ujht . to plead indifference in bar ofher duty . " " Are you sure , Kdwardes , that indifference always supervenes ?" " You are not a married man , or you would not usk . " " How are you so sure I should not ? Is it the nuirr ' uujc , then , that is always such a certain cause of indifference ?" " The marriage ? No ; it is the habit . Continuance always has that effect . " " Always ?" " Always—except in novels , und in eases that one never finds in one ' s own experience . " " Hut what if I say that 1 do know such 7 " " In married life ?" " In married life . But how . strange that question . It presupposes that such eases of continued affection might , exist without marriage . " " Undoubtedly : one effect of -- . But we are wandering from the point , ami you sire getting tired . Good night . I will go to town after all . Tell Yseult that I must see Malsted to-night , or very early . I will get a horse . " lie was leaving the room , hut he came hack . " I tell you what , Tristan , life is u sad reality , not u romance ; and when we expect ; romance in real life , or refuse to accept life as we find it , we infliet misery where at least misery is not ^ uc , punishing others for our disappointment . Good night . " Soon afterwards 1 heard him ride oil " . I lew that whut he says is true ;

    and that after the " illusion" is over , married life is but an endurance That accounts , in part , for the sombre faces all round . Two human beings become a mutual sacrifice , under the full belief , on presumption , that It must be so . And so it must , to the feeble and the acquiescent . But to see noble natures sacrificed , and sacrificed by noble natures ! I saw Yseult no more that night , and next day only in Margaret ' s room when I visited the patient ; now out of all danger , pale as she is , with her hair cut close , and her fine rounded face sharpened . Edwardes spent yesterday with us , and to-day Yseult and I followed him up , as she had not seen the children since Margaret ' s accident . It is painful , and yet delightful , to see how Edwardes ' love and hers still consciously meet in their children

    I forgot to tell you in my last letter , that when I attained to Giulia Sidney ' s lodging , she had gone , leaving for me a note , with only these words : — " I am gone into the country , not to return till you have had time to forgive me . I am more wretched than wicked . Addio . " ButWerneth tells me that she is to be at his father ' s ; and I shall surprise her there . I go the more readily , as Werneth promises that I shall see something of working-class life . I am beginning to tire of England , with all its bondages . See how much more I have written than I meant ! But Yseult calls me

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    PASSAGES FROM A BOY'S EPIC . X . Hesperia . Firm anchorage finding there , Leapt Bacchus to the shore , and leaping flung His tresses , that like golden morning streamed , From off his shoulders and his neck divine . Along the pier a mighty multitude Loud welcome shouted , and from echoing halls Came sceptred Gods , and all the Hesperian Powers . Some in their crowns wore wreaths of ivy green ; Some briony and blossoms of the grape , Or rose and myrtle , that above the sun , Bloom in the gardens of perpetual spring . With glad acclaim they hailed the Olympian god arriving , With Evoe and Io ; such all night In folds of gray Cithaeroi ^ when the train Of Mcenad wassailers confront the dark With flaring torches and large shadowy boughs , A vineyard all on fire , the traveller hears , And in some mountain hollow lurks secure . So shouting led they Bacchus through the streets Of the metropolis , Dionium called . Of gold the pavement was , more pure than glass ; Throughout the streets on either hand appeared Temple , and colonnade , and theatre , Of amethyst and opal , pearl and gold , With sculpture rare , and carved entablature , And delicate embroidery wrought in stone , Wild floAver of rose and flower of lily wrought . Through streets and arches , halls and corridors . Like a bright stream the long procession flowed , Continuous , till it reached an open square , White with the wandering moonlight . Central rose The palace of the Queen , wrought all of pearl , That in the moonlight likest moonlight seemed , Or work of radiant cloud that , miracle Had hardened into stone . Four portals Iookt Direct towards the four great winds of heaven , Fashioned of amethyst ; above them stood Pale images of marble ; God and man , Woman and goddess , and the larger forms Of panther , eameleopard , and liiccrn , Bewildering air with beauty . Hut ere long , Self-moving upon golden hinges , rolled The amethystine portals to receive Bacchus and all his mighty company ; Self-moving , yet once more , the jewelled gates Closed , and the flying echoes far away Died , as the gods advanced . Through regal bowers , That shone as with the ; light , of sunset clouds , While all the painted life upon the walls Seemed pleading for heroic memories Of old and crowned men , whom love made gods , Through halls and corridors , in lengthening line That pomp resplendent past , and now attained An ample chamber , wrought of solid pearl , With gorgeous light from gem and jewel rare , That suited the strong vision of the gods . Throughout the hull , at equal distance ranged , Twelve thrones were seen , whereof tin's central shone As among stars the moon , and here tin ; Queen Of all Desire and of all Beauty sat . * * * *

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    954 THE LEADER , [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 954, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1954/page/22/