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    SUCCJ3SS AND FAILURE. 109

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Chapter I. Two Men Sat Together In A Sin...

    of happiness , but to base tlie choice of one ' s life on mercenary motives alone is certainly foolish . Money gives money ' s worth , but

    nothing more . This seems a very trite truism , yet it is never sufficiently understood or known . We all go on imagining that we

    have but to write a successful book , marry a rich woman , attain a good positionand happiness must follow ; leaving out of the calcu- '

    , lation that the conditions which ensure happiness or entail misery , lie in the circumstances which accompany the successful book , the

    wealthy marriage , the prosperous position . Arthur reached his future home in a few days . The change of

    scene , the variety of occupation , and his desire of distinguishing himself in this new careerso occupied himthat it was some time

    , , before he wrote to Dora or Wyndham . When he did remember them , his letters were brief and hurried . They were more like printed

    reports of the society and politics of Berlin , accounts of the society for Dora , and sketches of the politics for Wyndham , than friendly

    or confidential letters . Both his friend and cousin were saddened by these letters . When one has for a certain time lived the life of

    a person , shared their thoughts , sympathised with their feelings , and given the best of one ' s nature ungrudgingly and with a free

    affection to them , it is mortifying to be laid aside as a worn-out garment ; and Dora , though she had never been in love with Arthur ,

    had too sincere an affection for him , not to feel the sudden break keenly and painfully . She was a sensible girl , however . She did

    not sit down and wring her hands because she could not get an imperfect nature to answer the demands made on it for fidelity and

    depth , she set herself the task of placing * Arthur on his proper level in her affections . Dora could do this ; she had the energies

    of a fresh strong heart to aid her , and she could rely on those two unfailing friends of the young , time and the future . When an

    older person stands face to face with a great sorrow of this nature , he knows that it has probably disenchanted the rest of life ; the

    broken threads of a rent friendship cannot be built up again ; " the spinning is all done" and it is this which makes it so hard to bear .

    Wyndham felt it , more keenly than Dora . He had not had that experience of Arthur in daily life which gave Dora her knowledge

    of him . He loved him with the strong and enduring affection of his own nature . He did not think Arthur possessed a deep heart ,

    but he hoped it was a true one . He subtracted from the overflowing words of affection of which Arthur had been so lavish , all that

    seemed the superfluous setting , but he relied on the jewel itself as genuine . He was mistaken 5 it was but tinsel . Arthur ' s temper

    was facile , his character was hard . He had nervous irritability , but not sensitive feelings . He had senses , but no passions . Pie had at

    times bursts of hysterical emotion which gave him an apj ) earance of almost feminine sensibilitybut these were only physical

    mani-, festations of a weak constitution . AH . sensual , pleasure-seeking ,

    self-indulgent characters are cold and hard , and Arthur was no ex-

    Succj3ss And Failure. 109

    SUCCJ 3 SS AND FAILURE . 109

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1859, page 109, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041859/page/37/