The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-12-25

some Speclal capacity Deyonu lual VI olIei icii,
slight in body, weak in health, but honest,
true. and warm-hearted. Then, the engage
men. having been completed, there arose tne
question of matrimony. The salary OF the Gu
rate was hundred year. The whole income
of the vicar, an old man, was, after payment
made to his curate, two hundred year: C0ulu
the curato, in such circumstances afford 10
take to himself a penniless wife OF seventeen,
Mrs. Gresley was willing that the marriage
should take place, and they should all 40 as
best they might on their joint income. Inc
, wears wife. who seems to have been a strong
| minded. sare. though somewhart hard wo-
man. took Mary aside, and told her that such
| q thing must not be. There would come, Silc
said. children and destitution and rum. She
knew perhaps more than Mary knew wnen
Mary told us her story, sitting opposite 70 us
in the low armchair. 1t was the advice OF inc
wears wife that the engagement snouid oe
broken off; but that, II the breaking OF the en-
raCement were Impossible, there shoulo De
an indefinite period of waiting. Such engage
ments cannot be broken OF. Young hearts
viii not consent to be thus torn aSunder. The
wears wife was too sl"ong for them to get
themselves married in her teeth, and the Pc
riod OF indefinite waiting was commenced.
III.
And now for q moment we will go further
back among Mary's youthful days. Child as
she seemed to be, she had in very early years
taken pen in her hand. The reader necd
hardly be told that had not such been the case
there would not have arisen any cause for
friendship between her and me. We are tell
inc an Editors tale, and it was in our editorial
capacity that Mary first came to us. Well-ln
her earliest attempts, in her very young days,
she wrote-Heaven knows what; poetry nrst,
no doubt: then, God help her, tragedy; after
that, when the curate-infuence first commence
ed, tales tor the conversion OF the unSodly-
and at last, before her engagement was a fact.
having tried her wing at fiction, in the form OF
those false little dialogues between Tom the
Saint and Bob the Sinner, she had completed
a novel in one volume. She was then seven,
teen. was engaged TO be married, ana nad
completed her novel; Passing her In the
street YOU would almost have taken her for
child to whom you might give an orange.
Hitherto her work had come from ambition,
or from q feeling Of somewhat restless plety
inspired by the curate. Now there arose IN
her Young mind the question whether such
talent as she possessed might not be turned 10
account for ways and means, ana useu 10
shorten, perhaps absolutely to annihilate, that
uncertain period OF waiting. Inc nrst mover
was seen by "a man Of letters in ner nelgh-
| borhood, who pronounced IL 10 oe very clenerEL -
NOT indeed tit as yet for publication, iau!ty IN
grammar, faulty even in spelling-how loveu
| the tear that shone in her eye as she confessed
this delinquency faulty, OF course, IN con.
struction, and faulty in character-but stlll
clever The man Of letters had told her that
she must begin again.
Unfortunate man Of letters, in having
thrust upon him so terrible task In such
circumstances, what Is the candid, honest,
soft-hearted man Of letters to do "Go, girl,
| and mend your stockings. Learn to make
mic If you work hard, 1t may be that some
| day your intellect will suffice to you TO read q
book and understand 1t. For the wiring Oh
book that shall either interest or instruct
| brother human being many gifts are required.
Have you lust reason to believe that they have
been given to you 2" That is what the candiu.
honest man of letters says, who Is not s0it-
| hearted--and in ninety-nlne cases out OF q
| hundred 1t will probably be the truth. The
| soft-hearted man Of letters remembers that
| this case may be the hundredth; and, unless
| the blotted manuscript submitted 10 MN is
conclusive against such possibility, ne recon-
Giles it to his conscience to tune his counsel 10
| that hope. Who can say that he Is wrong
Unless such evidence be conclusive, who can
venture to declare that this asplrant may not
be the one who shall succeed Who, In such
emergency, does not remember the day III
which he also was one of the hundred
of whom the nincty-and-nine must fail
and will not remember also the many
convictions on his own mind that he certainly
would not be the one appointed? The man oi
letters in the ncighbOrhood OF Cornb0ro To
whom poor Mary's manuscript was SHOWN was
not sufficiently hard-hcartcd to h'akc any
strong attempt to deter her. He IN e' no rel
erence to the easy stockings, Or Ncv eSomc
pie-pointed out the manifest faults N"lch he
saw. and added-we do not doubt wiia much
more energy than he threw into his words OF
censure-his comfortable assurance that there
was great promise in the work. Mary Greslcy
that evening burned the manuscript, and be-
can another, with the dictionary close at her
elbow.
Then. during her work, there occurred two
circumstances which brought upon her-and,
indeed, upon the household to which she be-
lOnged-intense esorrow-and greatly Increased
trouble. The first of these applied more espe-
cially to herself. The Rev. Arthur Donne did
not approve of novels-of other novels than
those dialogues between Tom and Bob,
of the talsehood of which he was urcon-
scious-and expressed desire that the writ
ing Of them should be abandoned. How far
the lover went in his attempt to enforce
obedience we, of course, could not know; but
he pronounced the edict, and The edict, though
not obeyed, created trlbulatlon. Then there
came forth another edict which had t. be
obeyed-an edct from the probable successor
of the late DR.. Gresley, ordering the poor cu-
rate to seek employment in some cline more
congenial 10 his state Of health than that in
which he was then living. He was told that
his throat and lungs and general apparatus
for living, and preaching, were not strong
enough for those hyperborean springs, and
that lie must seek southern climate. He
did so, and, before became acquainted with
Mary, had transferred his services to small
town in Dorsetshire. The engagement, OF
course. was to be as valid as ever, though
matrimony was TO be postponed, more lnden-
nitely even than heretofore. But If Mary could
write novels and sell them, then how glorious
would it be to follow her lover into Dorset
shire ! The Rev. Arthur DOnnc went, and the
curate who came In his place was married
man, wanting house, and not lodgings, So
Mary Gresley persevcred with her second no.
vel, and completed it before she was eighteen.
The lterul';y friend in the ncighpQrhQod-to
the chance of whose i,ccr.....".:...,ilGG was IN
debted for my subsequent friendship with
Mary Grcsley-tound this work TO bG great
Improvement on the first. He was an elderly
man, who had been engaged nearly all his life
in the conduct of a scientific anu agricultural
periodical, and was the last man whom
Should have taken as sound critic on works
of fiction-but, with spelling, grammatical con-
truction, and the composition of sentences he
was acquainted; and he assured Mary that her
progress had been great. Should she burn
that second story? she asked him. She would,
if he so recommended, and begin another the
next day. Such was not his advice. u nave
a friend in London" said he, "who has to 10
with such things, and you shall 20 TO him.
will give you letter." He gave her the fatal
letter, and she came TO us.
She came up to town with her povcl !;
but not only with her novel, tor she
brought her mother with her SO great was
her elooucnce. so excellent her suasive power
either with her tongue or by that look OF sup
nlication i'm her face. that she induced her