Volume I Part 33 (1/2)
”I ought to add that Sir J. Hudson, the Amba.s.sador at Turin, strongly advised my acceptance of Spezzia, offered as it was.”
No sooner had he made up his mind to accept the Spezzia post than he was intently gazing at the Naples consuls.h.i.+p, which he hoped would drop like a ripe plum into his mouth when he could muster up courage to take a step forward.
Another turn of Fortune's wheel which cheered him in 1858 was the appointment of his son to the 2nd Dragoon Guards. The regiment was under the command of General Seymour, and was stationed in India.
In the spring of 1859 'Davenport Dunn' had run its monthly course, and it was published in book form. The author's official duties were extremely light, and did not tie him to Spezzia. He was able to visit his vice-consulate when it pleased him, and to indulge in his favourite pastimes of boating and bathing all through the summer months.
Young Lieutenant Lever was now winning some golden opinions in India, though there was a little dross to be found in the gold. One of his brother officers describes him as being ”an exact facsimile of Charles O'Malley. He was the most accomplished young man I have ever heard of or read of,” says this witness, ”not only in such gifts as would make him conspicuous in a regiment, but he was likewise an accomplished linguist, and possessed a vast knowledge of general literature.” ”He was a warm-hearted, generous fellow,” declares another of his brother officers. ”But,” he continues regretfully, ”he was given too much to convivial and extravagant habits. Apparently he had set before himself, as an ideal of what a cavalry soldier should be, the bygone type of Jack Hinton.” By no means a bad type, one might add, if only the crack cavalry officer had sufficient means to live up to the ideal.
'Gerald Fitzgerald' came to the end of its irregular magazine course in 1859. For some reason which is not disclosed in Lever's correspondence, this novel was not published in book form in this country during the author's lifetime.* Amongst other graphic character-sketches, 'Fitzgerald' furnishes vivid studies of Alfieri and of Mirabeau. His next novel, 'One of Them,' was put in hand during the autumn: it was written wholly in the Villa Marola at Spezzia. It is said that the story was largely autobiographical. It gives an intimate description of life in an Ulster dispensary, and when the scene is s.h.i.+fted from Ireland the reader is taken to Florence. The most outstanding character in this book is the acute, good-humoured ”Yankee.” Quackinboss.
* A ”pirated” edition of it appeared in America daring Lever's lifetime. Its first issue in book form in this country was in 1897, when Downey & Co. published it (by arrangement with the author's grandson) in one volume.--E.D.
While 'One of Them' was moving leisurely onwards in its monthly groove, Charles d.i.c.kens asked Lever for a serial for 'All the Year Round.' Once more did the Irish novelist adopt the dual system; while he was still in the throes of 'One of Them' he commenced to write 'A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance.' This story relates the adventures of a half-shrewd, half-foolish day-dreamer. Through it there runs a curious vein of irony which is quite different from the author's early or later quality of humour. There is an insufficiency of movement in the tale; and it proved to be quite unsuited for serial publication in a magazine where the plot interest has to be kept alive from month to month. d.i.c.kens was bitterly disappointed: he complained that the circulation of his magazine was injuriously affected. Something perilously near a quarrel arose between the editor of 'All the Year Round' and the author of 'A Day's Ride.'
Lever did not hold a very high opinion of the novel, but he was justified in not regarding it as an absolutely worthless performance.
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
”Spezzia, _Sept_. 7, 1859.
”It was only because I found myself in a maze of troubles at the moment of what is ordinarily a pleasant family event that I had not a moment to write to you. Chapman & Hall, in whom for years back all my confidence has been unbounded, have behaved to me in a way to make me uneasy as to my right in my works, and I feel the very gravest anxiety for the future. This case yet hangs over me, and how it is to [? terminate] I cannot foresee. This is but a sorry [excuse] for suffering you to incur all the inconvenience I have occasioned; but when have I ceased to be a burthen to you?
”I wrote by this post to Chapman to forward the money for the insurance, and will immediately see to the other. Brady cannot affect any difficulty in settling with you: his only payment to myself personally was 100, somewhere in the present year. Therefore the number of sheets of my contributions, multiplied by the sum per sheet (30 or 35, I forget which), will give the exact amount due.
”I am about to begin a new serial, which will at least provide for the present.
”The 'Party,' after [?immense] pledges and compliments, went out without giving me anything beyond this very humble sinecure; but sinecure it is, and therefore for once 'The right man in the right place.'
”Charley was well, and fighting up in Oude, when last I heard from him; but all the pleasure of killing sepoys does not, it would appear, so entirely engross him that he cannot spend money, and he draws a bill with the same nonchalance that he draws his sword. p.u.s.s.y's husband is a Captain Bowes-Watson,--only twenty-two years of age, but a Crimean and Indian hero. He is of the veritable English type--blond, stiff, silent, and upstanding, and what Colonel Haggerstoue would call 'a perfect gentleman,' being utterly incapable by any effort of his own to provide for his own support. They are for the present poorly off, but at the death of a very old grandmother will have a fair competence,--about 1500 a year. I am sorely sorry to part with her, but the _malheur_ is that we lose in age the solace of those whose society we always hoped to console us. We go through the years of training and teaching and educating to give them up when they have grown companionable. Very selfish regrets these, but they are my latest wounds, and they smart the most.
”Julia is 'contracted,' but the event is, and must be, somewhat distant.
In other respects it is what is called a great match. And so only Baby (as Sydney is called) remains,--a marvellously clever little damsel of ten, whose humour and wit exceed that of all the grown folk I know.
”I hope to send you the first number of my new serial by the end of next month. Its t.i.tle is 'One of Them.'”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
”Spezzia, _Sept._ 17, 1860
”I am doing my best at 'One of Them.' 'The Ride' I write as carelessly as a common letter, but I'd not be the least astonished to find the success in the inverse ratio to the trouble. At all events I am hard worked just now, and as ill-luck would have it, it is just the moment the F. O. should call upon me for details about Italy.
”The position of Sardinia is now one of immense difficulty. If she throws herself on France she must confront the [? Revolutionary] party at home, who are ready to seize upon Garibaldi and place him at the head of the movement. If she adopts Garibaldi and his plans, she offends France, and may be left to meet Austria alone and unaided. The old story--the beast that can't live on sand and dies in the water. To be sure, our own newspapers a.s.sure her complacently that she has the 'moral aid' of England. But moral aid in these days of steel-plated frigates and Armstrong guns is rather out of date, not to say that at the best it is very like looking at a man drowning and a.s.suring him all the while how sorry you are that he had not learned to swim when he was young.
The crisis is most interesting, particularly so to me, as I know all the actors--Admirals, Generals, and Ministers--who are figuring _en scene_.