Ernest Maltravers, Book 1

destroy their P

exchange; but the grave remonstrances and solemn exhortations of Maltravers reconciled her at last, and she promised to work hard and pay every attention to her lessons. I am not sure, however, that it was the tedium of the work that deterred the idealist-perhaps he felt its danger-and at the bottom of his sparkling dreams and brilliant follies lay a sound, generous, and noble heart. He was fond of pleasure, and had been already the darling of the sentimental German ladies. But he was too young and too vivid, and too roman

till he became inspired, and then he wrote-and when he had composed a few stanzas he was not contented till he had set them to music, and tried their melody with his voice. For he had all the passion of a German for song, and music-tha

a light step flying before him, and caught the glimpse of a female figure escaping through a distant door. "The silly child," t

w aside books and papers, took his hat and staff, and went whistling or humming his favourite airs through the dreary streets, or along the bleak waters, or amidst the leafless woods, just as the humour seized him; for he was not an Edwin or Harold, who reserved speculation only for lonely brooks and pastoral hills. Maltravers delighted to contemplate nature in men as well as in sheep or trees. The humblest alley in a crowded town had something poetical for him; he was ever ready to mix in a crowd, if it were only gathered round a barrel-organ or a dog-fight, and listen to all that was said and notice all that was done. And this I take to be the true poetical temperament essential to every artist who aspires to be something more than a scene-painter. But, above all things, he was most interested in any display of human passions or affections; he loved to see the true colours of the heart, where they are most transparent-in the uneducated and poor-for he was something of an optimist, and had a hearty faith in the lov

ng a little of a botanist, he had odd visionary notions about the life of plants, and he saw in them a hundred mysteries which the herbalists do not teach us), when he heard a low and very

a little room which was apportioned to Alice, and jutted out from the building in the fanciful irregularity common to ornamental cottages, the form of hi

t, and walk with me in the garden: you look

for it was his great inspirer whenever his thoughts were perplexed, or he felt his usual fluency likely to fail him, and such wa

after a pause; bu

p at him with

ps the smoke is unpleasant to y

e seemed disappointed. Maltravers

he said; "do y

with some enthusiasm; "I nev

annot say, for I do not see the /sequitur/; but on h

he stopped abruptly,

erheard yo

ou are

that is; I mean it is an excellent thing to have an ear; a

vers thrilled through his whole frame; but there was something in the girl's look tha

e said, wiping her eyes as she dropped h

ll

the music ringing in my ears, till I tried to go over it myself; and so at l

irl had touched upon one of his weak points;

d sit outside the door every evening and hear

ld corridor, thes

her would not let me have a

give you a lesson or two. I am glad you have so good an ear; it may be

ave you, sir!" said Alice, begin

recourse to t

x, the old writing-master. Alice went in to prepare her books

ck pupil, I hop

s on famously. She practises a great

in instilling into the poor child's mind some of those more

heathen-quite a Mahometan, I may s

e you tau

God ma

s a gre

good girls, and wil

You beat

one, except little Jack T

else do you

runs away with

her; the rest will follow. I would rather make people religious through their best feelings than their wors

mcox s

say her

ught her a

learn it

less her benefactor, she would not rest till I had repeated a pray

ox. I will not de

evidently possessed, and through which she might secure her own independence. He fancied that he should thus relieve himself of a charge and responsibility which often perplexed him. Alice would leave him, enabled to walk the world in a

ds stormed, and the rain beat without, a lithe and lovely shape hovered about the student's ch

e soon taught her to play by ear; and Maltravers could not but notice that her hand, always delicate in shape, had lost the rude colour and roughness of lab

he "pretty young woman" garments, still indeed simple, but of better materials and less rustic fashion; and Alice's redundant tresses were now carefully arranged into orderly and glossy curls, and even the texture was no longer the

l shape than our rough, masculine angles. A vulgar boy requires Heaven knows what assiduity to make three steps-I do not say like a gentleman, but like a body that has a soul in it; but give the least advantage of society or tuition to a peasant girl, and a hundred to one but she will glide in

against grammar and accent: and her memory was prodigiously quick and retentive. The very tones of her voice seemed altered

y, as she ordered Alice's new dresses, was a much better philosopher than Maltravers; though he was already u