Part 11 (1/2)
ANNE GILCHRIST.
LETTER XXVII
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_50 Marquis Rd., Camden Sq.
London, May 18, 1875._
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
Since last I wrote to you at the beginning of April (enclosing a little photograph of that avenue just by our cottage at Colne) I have been into Wales for a fortnight to see Percy, & have looked for the first time in my life on the Atlantic--the ocean my mental eyes travel over & beyond so often and that your eyes and ears & heart have been fed by, have communed with and interpreted, as in a new tongue, to the soul of man. Looking upon that, watching the tides ebb & flow on your sh.o.r.es, sharing, through my beloved book, in those greatest movements you have spent alone with it--that was a new joyful experience, a fresh kind of communing with you.--I went to Wales because I felt anxious about Percy, who is not happy just now. I must not tell friends here about it (except his brother & sisters) but I am sure I may tell you, for you will listen with sympathy.
He has attached himself very deeply, I think it will prove, to a girl, & she to him, whose parents welcomed him cordially to their house for a year or two & allowed plenty of intercourse till they became aware through Percy himself (who thought it right to tell the father as soon as he was fully aware of his own feelings & more than suspected Norah's response to them) that there was a strong affection growing up between the two. Then they peremptorily forbade all intercourse--not because they have any objection to Percy--quite the contrary, they say; but solely and simply because he is not yet earning money enough to marry on, & they hold that a man has no right to engage a girl's affections till he can do so. As if these things could be timed to the moment the money comes in! Percy was in hopes, & so was I, that if I went down, I might get sense enough into their heads, if not kindness & sympathy into their hearts, to see that the sole effect of such arbitrary & narrow-sighted conduct would be to alienate & embitter the young people's feelings toward them, while it would make them more restless & anxious to marry without adequate means.
Whereas if a reasonable amount of intercourse were allowed, it would be a happy time with them, & Norah being still so young (18), & Percy working away with all his might, doing very well for his age & sure, conscientious, thorough, capable, & well trained worker that he is (for the L. School of Mais gives a first rate scientific preparation for his profession) to be making a modest sufficiency in a year or two. Well, they were very courteous & indeed friendly to me, & I think I have won over the mother; but the father remains obdurate, & Percy feels bitterly the separation--all the more trying as they live almost within sight of each other. So Beatrice & Grace are going to spend their holidays with him this summer to cheer him up. Meanwhile, dear friend, I am on the whole happier than not about him. I liked what I saw of Norah & believe he has found a very sweet, affectionate girl of quiet, domestic nature, practical, industrious, sensible--thoroughly well to suit him, & that there is true & deep love between them--also, she took to me very much, & I feel will be quite another child to me. It is besides no little joy to me to find how Percy has confided in me in this & chooses me as the friend to whom he tells all--far from being any separation, as sometimes happens, this love of his seems to draw us closer together. Only I am very, very anxious for his sake to see him in a better berth--they would let her marry him on 300 a year; now he has only 175. He is quite competent to manage iron or copper or tin works, only he looks so young, not having yet any beard or moustache to speak of. That is the end of my long story.
This will reach you on your birthday perhaps, my dearest Friend; at any rate it must bear you a greeting of love and fond remembrance for that dear day such as my heart will send you when it actually comes: patiently waiting heart, with the fibres of love and boundless trust & joy & hope which bind me to you bedded deep, grown to be, during these long years, a very part of its immortal substance, untouchable by age or varying moods or sickness, or death itself, as I surely believe. I long more than words can tell to know how it fares with you now in health and spirit. My children are all well & growing & unfolding to my heart's content.
Beatrice & Herbert deeply influenced by your Poems. Good-bye, my dearest Friend.
A. GILCHRIST.
LETTER XXVIII
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_Address 1 Torriano Gardens Camden Road, N. W.
London
Earls Colne Aug. 28, 1875._
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
Your letter came to me just when I most needed the comfort of it--when I was watching and tending my dear Mother as she gently, slowly, with but little suffering, sank to rest. There was no sick bed to sit by--we got her up and out into the air and suns.h.i.+ne for an hour or two even the day before she died--No disease, only the stomach could not do its work any longer & for the last three weeks she lived wholly on stimulants, suffering somewhat from sickness. She drew her last breath very gently before daybreak on the 15th inst., in her 90th year, which she had entered in Jan. She looked very beautiful in death, notwithstanding her great age--as well she might--tranquil sunset that it was of a beautiful day--a fulfilled life--joy & delight of her father in youth (who used to call her the apple of his eye), good wife, devoted, self-sacrificing, wise mother--patient, courageous sufferer through thirty years of chronic rheumatism, which, however, neutralized & ceased its pains the last few years--unsurpa.s.sed, & indeed I think unsurpa.s.sable, in conscientiousness--in the strong sense of duty & perfect obedience to that highest sense--she is one of those who amply justify your large faith in women.
I do not need to tell you anything, my dearest friend--you know all--I feel your strong comforting hand--I press it very close.
I had all my children with me at the funeral.
O the comfort your dear letter was & is to me. Thinking over & over the few words you say of yourself--& what is said in the paper (so eagerly read--every word so welcome) I cannot help fancying that the return of the distressing sensations in the head must be caused by your having worked at the book--the ”Two Rivulets” (I dearly like the t.i.tle & the idea of bringing the Poems & Prose together so)--that you must be more patient with yourself and submit still to perfect rest--& that perhaps in regard to the stomach--you have not enough adapted your diet to the privation of exercise--that you must be more indulgent to the stomach too in the sense of giving it only the very easiest & simplest work to do. My children join their love with mine.
Your own loving