Part 17 (1/2)
duly received. I was very glad to get it--for you have greatly, wonderfully improved in your writing. I liked your article extremely, and was so very glad to see the marked improvement....
I am _not_, when I speak of improvement in the art of English composition, alluding solely to the time when you wrote as follows (italics and caps your own):
”Mr. Gatty thinks that Messrs. Fisher & Holmes has sent more than he desired _he said 2s._ or _2s. 6d._ and he thinks there is here more than that he hopes he will answer and tell me what price the LOT is and how many plants I may take for _2s._ or _2s. 6d._ by return of post or by c.o.x which will be better Ecclesfield June 1866.”
I wouldn't part with the original of the above under a considerable sum of money! It always refreshes my brain to go back to it--and I laugh as often as one laughs, and re-laughs at Pickwick!--the way the p.r.o.nouns become entangled and after making an imperfectly distinctive stand at ”_he said_,” jump desperately to the pith of the matter in ”what price the LOT is.” All difficulties of punctuation being disposed of by the process of omitting stops entirely--like old Hebrew--written without points!
(What an autograph for collectors if ever you're the ”King Cole” of Liverpool!)
... I have been staying with M.M. I wish I could impart my mental gleanings. I made several experiments on her intellect. I tried to _pin her_ again and again--but QUITE without success--or (on _her_ part) sense of failure. I tried to remember what she had said afterwards--and I could not succeed. I couldn't carry a single sentence.
Generally speaking I gather that--
”The Kelts are destroying themselves--the Teuton Element MUST prevail--one feels--genius--the thing--Herr Beringer--Dr. Zerffi--but whatever one may FEEL--so it is! Every other nation COMMENCED where we LEAVE OFF. WE BEGAN with the DRAMA and left off with the Epic--Milton's--what-is-it? But there you have Hamlet--where do you find a character like Hamlet?--NOWHERE! That's the beauty of it. The young lady's maid never reads anything--but Macbeth. ANNE I _can_ trust with Faust. I read Lessing myself--and the Greek Testament (not the Epistles--don't let me exaggerate)--with a bit of dry toast and a cup of tea without a saucer or anything. I never sit down till the Easter holidays--before breakfast--I ought to feel--what is it--PROUD. Dr.
Zerffi says he'll show A.B.'s papers at any University against the first-cla.s.s men--and they won't understand a word of them. What were those girls when they came? There's the d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset's 15th coz twice removed. _Its all blood._ My father drove four-in-hand down this very hill in the old _coaching_ days (!!!)--and there's not another school in England where the young ladies read Bopp before breakfast. But the Vedas are a mine of--you know what--_Sanskrit_ is _English_--change the letters and I could make myself understood by a Pa.r.s.ee better than by half the young ladies of this establishment. We're all Indians!”
If her conversation is what it was--and _more so_, her hospitality, her generosity--and her admirable management of the girls and the house is as A1 as ever. I never saw a prettier, jollier, nicer set of girls. H---- is growing _very_ charming, I think. I believe the secret of her success, in spite of that extraordinary fitful intellect of hers, is that one never learns anything _well_ but what one learns _willingly_, and that she makes life so much more pleasant and reasonable that the girls work themselves, and so get on.
It's getting late! Good-night. I wish we met oftener!
Ever your very loving sister, J.H.E.
Have you seen March _A.J.M._? I particularly want you to read a thing of mine called ”Our Garden.” I'll send it if you can't get it.
_For Private Circulation Only._
(Oh, Charles! Charles!)
Time, 2 p.m. Julie in bed for the sake of ”perfect quiet.” M.M.
”without a moment to spare.”
”I SEE I'm tiring you--I shall NOT stop--I haven't a moment--I can't speak--I've given lessons on the mixed Languages this morning--and paid all my bills--Mr. B---- has called--he's better-looking than I thought, but too much hair--and the BREWER all over--you look very white--you're killing yourself--why DO you DO it?--and U----'s as bad--I mean D----.
Dear me! what a pleasure it has been! When I THINK of Ecclesfield!!!!
You are NOT to kill yourself--I forbid it--why should you work for daily bread as I have to do?--Our bread bill doesn't exceed 4 a week--I mean a month--TEN pounds a month for groceries and wine--spirits we never have in the house--you've seen all that we have--when I was senseless and Dr. F---- called--when the other doctors came he left his card and retired, but we've employed him since--he ordered gin cloths--they sent out--when the bill came in I said Brown! BROWN! BROWN!!--_what's this?_ GIN! GIN! GIN! WHO'S 'ad GIN! They said YOU! Such is life!
”Dear, dear, IT is a pleasure to see you--but I see your head's bad and I'm going--I MUST dress.--May I ring your bell for the maid--a black silk, Julie, good and well cut is economical, my dear. No _underground to Whiteley's_ for me! Lewis and Allenby--they dress me--I order nothing--I know nothing--I haven't a rag of clothing in the world--they line the bodices with silk and you can darn it down to the last--I eat nothing--I drink nothing--I only _work_--I never sleep--I read German cla.s.sics in bed--Lessing--and the second part of Schiller's _Faust_--I give lessons on it before breakfast in my dressing-gown--this morning the young ladies hung on my lips--I _know_ the lesson was a good one--It was the Sorrows of Goethe. Last week Dr. Zerffi said--'All religions are one and one religion is all--particularly the Brahmas.' It was splendid!
and none of the young ladies knew it before they came. But Poor Mrs.
S----! She didn't seem one bit wiser. I sent him a Valentine on the 14th--designed by the young ladies. He said 'I _knew_ where it came from--by the word BOPP. Zis is ze only establishment in England where the word BOPP is known.' He's a great man--and the Teutonic element _must_ prevail. The Kelts are very charming, but they will GO. We've the same facial angle as the Hindoo, but poor Mrs. S---- can't see it. Dr.
A---- says I must have some sleep--so I've given up Sanscrit--You can't do everything even in bed. And it's _English_ when all's done--and Brown speaks it as well as I do!! _Go_ to India, Julie, if ever you have the chance, and talk to the natives--they'll understand you. They understand me. Signor Ricci sometimes does NOT. But then he speaks the modern--the base--Italian, and _I_--the _cla.s.sic_. He said, 'I do not understand you, Mees M----.' I said, 'E vero, Signor--I know you don't. But that's because I speak _cla.s.sic_ Italian. All the organ-boys understand me.'
And he smiled. Dear, dear! How pleasant it is to see a Gatty--but I wish you didn't look so white--when I see other people suffer, and think of all the years of health I've enjoyed, I never can be thankful enough--and when I've paid my monthly bills I'm the happiest woman in England. When I think of how much I have and how little I deserve, I don't know what to do but say my prayers. Dear, I'm sorry I told you that story about X----. If she sent this morning for 10 I must let her have it, if I had to go out and borrow it. I am going out--the Dr. says I must. In the holidays I go on the balcony--and look down into the street--and see the four-in-hands--and the policemen--and the han(d)som cabmen (they're most of them gentlemen--and some of them Irish gentlemen), and I say--'Such is life!' And poor Mrs. S---- says '_Is it_, Miss M----?' and I know I speak sharply to her, which I should _not do_. And I go into Kensington Gardens--and see the Princess--and the Ducks in the water--and the little ragged boys going to bathe--and I say 'This is a glorious world!' I saw Lord--Lord--dear me! I know his name as well as my own--Lord--Lord--Oh Lord! he believes in Tichborne--K----, that's it--Lord K---- in the Row. He always asks after me. HE married a woman--well. No more about that. He couldn't get a divorce. HER sister married a parson. SHE was the mother of that poor woman--you know--who was murdered by those people--THEY lived two streets off Derby House--the brother--a handsome man--lived opposite Gipsey Hill Station.
You know _that_? _Well._ His wife had a bunch of curls behind (I hate curls and bunches behind--keep your hair clean and put it up simply).