English fiction -- 19th century; Marriage -- Fiction
Woodseer turned for a farewell gaze at the great Watzmann, and saluted
him.
'Splendid,' said Lord Fleetwood; 'but don't clap names on the mountains.
--I saw written in your book: "A text for Dada." You write: "A despotism
would procure a perfect solitude, but kill the ghost." That was my
thought at the place where we were at the lake. I had it. Tell me--
though I could not have written it, and "ghost" is just the word, the
exact word--tell me, are you of Welsh blood? "Dad" is good Welsh--
pronounce it hard.'
Woodseer answered: 'My mother was a Glamorganshire woman. My father,
I know, walked up from Wales, mending boots on his road for a livelihood.
He is not a bad scholar, he knows Greek enough to like it. He is a
Dissenting preacher. When I strike a truism, I 've a habit of scoring it
to give him a peg or tuning-fork for one of his discourses. He's a man
of talent; he taught himself, and he taught me more than I learnt at
school. He is a thinker in his way. He loves Nature too. I rather envy
him in some respects. He and I are hunters of Wisdom on different
tracks; and he, as he says, "waits for me." He's patient!'
Ah, and I wanted to ask you,' Lord Fleetwood observed, bursting with it,
'I was puzzled by a name you write here and there near the end, and
permit me to ask, it: Carinthia! It cannot be the country? You write
after, the name: "A beautiful Gorgon--a haggard Venus." It seized me.
I have had the face before my eyes ever since. You must mean a woman.
I can't be deceived in allusions to a woman: they have heart in them.
You met her somewhere about Carinthia, and gave her the name? You write
--may I refer to the book?'
He received the book and flew through the leaves:
'Here--"A panting look": you write again: "A look of beaten flame: a look
of one who has run and at last beholds!" But that is a living face: I
see her! Here again: "From minute to minute she is the rock that loses
the sun at night and reddens in the morning." You could not create an
idea of a woman to move you like that. No one could, I am certain of it,
certain; if so, you 're a wizard--I swear you are. But that's a face
high over beauty. Just to know there is a woman like her, is an
antidote. You compare her to a rock. Who would imagine a comparison of
a woman to a rock! But rock is the very picture of beautiful Gorgon,
haggard Venus. Tell me you met her, you saw her. I want only to hear
she lives, she is in the world. Beautiful women compared to roses may
whirl away with their handsome dragoons! A pang from them is a thing
to be ashamed of. And there are men who trot about whining with it!
But a Carinthia makes pain honourable. You have done what I thought
impossible--fused a woman's face and grand scenery, to make them
inseparable. She might be wicked for me. I should see a bright rim
round hatred of her!--the rock you describe. I could endure horrors
and not annihilate her! I should think her sacred.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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