Volume I Part 30 (1/2)
”Your letter reached me in the very nick of a negotiation of which Charley was the object. The Messrs Sandell, the Engineers to whom the Tuscan and some other of the Italian railroads have been conceded, have made me an offer to take him as a pupil and make him a C.E. I hesitated when first the proposition reached me, and I thought it was possible he might possess talents likely to win college honours and distinction, and make a fair chance of what follows on them. I find that this is less likely than I had believed; that his natural indolence requires the spur of a personal interest to stimulate it,--and this probably a real career may effect. He certainly likes the notion greatly, and appears as if the choice was really what he himself would have made. I accepted, therefore, and he does not return to Ireland. G.o.d grant that I may have done wisely what I have done maturely and after much reflection.
”I shall be chargeable with Charley's expenses for two years certain; after that I hope he will contribute to them himself. Though it was certainly advisable he should have encountered the rough-and-tumble of a school, yet probably I should not have incurred the great outlay had I antic.i.p.ated only this opening. However, it may be all for the best.
”In my career through life I have made what are popularly called many valuable acquaintances, but I can safely aver that I could not to-morrow get my son made a policeman or letter-carrier, with all my fine friends and t.i.tled a.s.sociates, and the offer of Messrs Sandell is the one solitary instance of a kindness in this wise I have ever met with. From what Mr S. tells me, I shall have to pay something like a hundred per annum for a couple of years. He will be stationed in Italy at various places, and Cha. will be at his headquarters, wherever that may be.
”J. Sandell is a pupil of Stevenson, and reputed to be a man of great knowledge of his profession. His offer to me was spontaneous and made in the most flattering manner, so that, everything considered, I should feel that I was not doing a prudent thing to reject it.
”Cha. tells me that Guillemand at the most can only take a quarter's salary for want of a previous notice of withdrawal, but I should deem him exceedingly shabby if he wanted _that_....
”We are here boating and bathing and swimming and salting ourselves all day long. It is the most enjoyable spot of the most enjoyable land, and we have a house five miles distant from any other, on the edge of the sea, and approachable only by boat. I cannot, however, write a line, for our whole time is spent on the water. What's to be done with K. J. and Mrs D., Heaven knows!
”I suppose you may have seen Maxwell. He is, or ought to be, in Ireland by this time. This affair of Charles was only decided upon this afternoon, and I don't lose a post in letting you know about it.
”I am greatly pleased at your opinion of 'The Dodds,' since through all its absurdity of incident and situation I have endeavoured to convey whatever I know of life and the world. I by no means intend to endorse as my own every judgment of K. J., but I mean that many of his remarks are, so far as I am capable of saying, just and correct, and when he does blunder, it is only for the sake of preserving that species of characteristic which should take off any appearance of dogmatism or pretension when speaking of more important subjects.
”As to the [? criticism] about foreigners and the Continent generally, I a.s.sure you I have not the courage to tell the things that have come under my own notice, while foreign notions of England are equally, if not more, ridiculous. I am quite prepared to hear 'genteel people' call K. J. very low and his family vulgar, but if so, I am consoled by the fact that it has touched the sore places in some sn.o.bbish nature; and in all ranks and conditions of our countrymen sn.o.bbery is the great prevailing vice. I am meanwhile amusing myself jotting down on paper the things which have so often afforded me real fun to contemplate in the world,--and so far from high colouring, my great effort is to tone down the picture to the sombre tints of verisimilitude and probability.”
In October the weather made boating a somewhat dangerous pastime. In reply to M'Glashan's stereotyped complaint that Lever was ”huddling his castastrophes,” the novelist playfully replied that ”a smas.h.i.+ng Levanter” had half-filled his boat with water one day, and ”all but closed the career of the author of 'Sir Jasper Carew' without a huddle.” He begged M'Glashan to give himself a breathing-time, to clear his head by inhaling some fresh Italian air, to visit Florence and discuss with the author of 'Sir Jasper' the best means of putting the hero to bed. But M'Glashan could not be inveigled into the paying of a visit to the novelist; nor could he be induced to furnish Lever with the long letters which at one time had helped to keep him in touch with literary life in Ireland and elsewhere. The fact was that M'Glashan was beginning to break down.
_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.
”Florence, _Nov_. 24, 1853.
”A very strange, but I fear impracticable, offer has come to me from the United States, which I have sent to O'Sullivan for his counsel, to be then forwarded to John....
”Meanwhile--and to be in a measure prepared for the future--I want you to do a bit of diplomacy for me. My story of 'Carew' will finish in March, when 'The Dodds' also will close; and as Chapman & Hall contemplate the new issue of my older books, I suspect they will not be disposed to engage me contemporaneously with a new work, so that I shall be suddenly without any engagement in London or Dublin. What I want is, therefore, that you should sound M'Glashan as to a new serial story,--to be published by him both in the Magazine and in monthly numbers, as he did with 'O'Malley,' and _with my name_. I want the thing done adroitly, as if the notion originated with you, and so that, if he approved, you could then suggest it to me. If he said Yes, we could then talk of terms. At all events, you could say that an offer of American origin had been made to me, and if this (the serial) could be managed, _you_ would rather have it than the Transatlantic project.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer_
”Hotel d'Odessa, Spezzia, _Dec_ 20, 1853.
”You write (as I am accustomed to feel) soberly and seriously. But there is this difference between us: you have borne the heavy burden of a long life of labour with n.o.ble earnestness and self-denial; I have, on the contrary, only to look back upon great opportunities neglected and fair abilities thrown away, capacity wasted, and a whole life squandered.
Yet if it were not for the necessity that has kept me before the world, perhaps I should have sunk down wearied and exhausted long ago: but as the old clown in the circus goes on grinning and grimacing even when the chalk won't hide his wrinkles, so do I make a show of light-heartedness I have long ceased to feel, or, what is more, to wish for!
”If I had the choice given me I'd rather be forsaken by my creditors than remembered by my friends.
”I am glad you like 'Carew.' It was more than pleasant to me to write it. What a strange confession, is it not?--as though saying that when an author came to take pleasure in his own book, he was reduced to the condition of a bear who loved sucking his own paw.
”We have come here to pa.s.s the winter, for though intrinsically little cheaper than Florence, as we are all driven to a hotel, we have got rid of horses and stable expenses altogether. Our economy up to this has not done much, but even a little seems to encourage, and I suppose that thrift is one of those remedies that requires to be introduced gradually into the system.
”I scribble a great deal--political hash amongst the rest--but not very profitable, for whatever is done without name is nearly always done without money. 'Garibaldi,' however, brought me about 50.
”Don't bore yourself writing to me; but, if you like, let me write to you. I have plenty--too much--time on my hands, and it is about the last pleasure left me to commune with one who, though he has known me so long, still loves me.
”Charles is working hard away at his new trade, and likes it. His masters, the Messrs Sandell, have built a large foundry, and make all the materials of the rail.”