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

pie, plous, commonplace young man, imbuct
with a strong idea that In being made q prizes
he had been Invested with nobility and will
sOme special capacity beyond thai orothcr men
slight In body, weak In health, but honest
true, and warm-hcartcd. Then, the engage
mcnt having been completed, there arose tht
question OF matrimony. The salary OF the cn
rate was II hundred Il year. The whole income
made TO his curate, two hundred year. Coult
the curate, In such circumstances, Afford tt
take to himself pcnniess wife OF seventeen
Mrs. Grcslcy was willing TINT the marriaag,
best they might OH their joint income. The
| Wears wife, who seems to have been Il strong
| minded, sage, though somcwhart hard wo
man. iOok Mary aside, and told her that such
| said, children and destitutlon and rrin. ShC
| knew perhaps more than Mary knew when
Mary told us her story, sitting opposite 10 US
i'm tile low armchair. II was the advice of the
Wears wife that the engagement should I've
broken of; but that, II the breaking of the en-
gngcmcnt were impossible, there should be
an indefinite period of waiting. Such engage
mcnts cannot be broken OF. Young hearts
will not consent 10 be thus torn asnnder. The
wears wife wGs too strong for them to get
themselves married In her teeth, and the pc
riod OF indefinite waiting was commenced.
And now for moment wc will go further
back among Mary's youthful DAYS Child ay
taken pen In her hand The reader need
hardly be told that had not such been the case
there would not have arisen any cause for
friendship between her and inc. We are tell
Ing IN Editors tale, and It wus In our editorial
capacity that Mary first came to us. Wcll-in
her earliest attempts, In her very young days,
she wrotc-Hcaven knows what; poetry first,
no doubt; then, God help her, tragedy; aftcr
that, when the curatc-inlluence first commence
cd, tales for the Conversion Of tho ungodly-
| and nj last, before her engagement WAS fact.
having tried her wing nj fiction, In the form oi
those false little dialogues between Tom tho
q novel In one volume. She was then seven
teen, was engaged to be married, and had
completed her novel Passing her in the
street you would almost have taken her for Il
child TO whom you might give MI orange.
Hitherto her work had come from ambition,
or from feeling Of somewhat restless picty
| inspired by the cllratc. Now there arose III
her young mind the question whether sucl,
talent as she possessed might not be turned 10
account for ways and means, and used tu
shorten, perhaps absolutely to annihllatc, that
uncertain period OF whiting. The first novel
was seen by ia man OF letters" IN her neigh
borhood, who pronounced it 10 bc very clever
not indeed iit rs yet for publication, faulty I'm
grammar, faulty even in spelling-hOw loved
the tear that shonc In her eye as she confessed
this delinquency faulty, of course, in con-
strncion. and faulty in character-but still
clever. The man Of letters had told her that
she must begin agnin.
Unfortunate man OF lett In having
thrust upon him so terrible 4. six In such
circumstances, what is the candid, honest,
sofl-hearted man Of letters to do? "Go, girl.
and mend your stockings. Learn to make :,
pie. If you work hard, it may be that some
book and understand II. For the writing of n
book That shall either interest or ins,rllct a
brother human being many gins are required.
Have you Just reason to believe that they have
been given 10 you Z" That Is what the candid.
honest man Of letters ssys, who is not roil-
hcarted-and in nincty-ninc cascs out of n
hundred 1t VIII probably bc the truth. TDo
soit-heartcd man OF letters remembers tha.
this case may be the hundrcdL,; and, unle..,
the blottcd manuscript subml. led 10 him IS
conclusive against such possibility, he IL >,i,.
Giles IL to his conscience to tune his cuunsci Ia
mat nope. "ho can say tina! hc is wrors
Unlcss such evidence be conclusive, who c;,;,
venture 10 declare that this asiiirunt may nni
be the one who shall succeed Who, In s,lci,
emergency, does not remember the day IN
which he also was one of the hundred
Of whom the nincty-and-nine. must iai
and will not remember niso :hc many
convictions OH his own mndtha. he ccrla:ul:.
would not be the one appointed? The man t..
letters In the ncighborl:ooh of Co.nbo,o 80
whom poor Mary's manuscript was shown wu.
not sufficiently har,l-hcaricI TO make u.y
strong attempt to deter her. He mutlc no RET
erencc 10 the easy stockings, or The wholesome
plc-polntcd ont the manifest faults which hn
SAW, and addcd-wc do not doubt with mnc!.
more energy than he threw into his words Vi.
ccnsurc-his comfortable assurance that there
was great promise In the work. Mary Gresicy
tnat evening burned the manuscript, aud hC-
gan another, with the dictionary close ut lvr
elbow.
Then during her Tar G6DGr GrTE:' Tcrnal
indeed, upon the household TO which she to-
longed-intensc sorrow-and greatly Increased
trouble. The first OF these applied more cspe-
ciully TO herself The Rev. Arthur Dome did
not approve of noycls-of other novels than
those dialogues between Tom and Bob,
OF the falschood of which he was uncon-
scious-and expressed II desire that the writ
ing Of them should be abandoned. How far
the lover went in his attempt 10 enforce
obedience we, Of course, could not know; but
lie pronounced the edict, and the ctllct, though
not obcyed, created tribulati0n. Then there
came forth another edict which had to be
obcycd-an cdlct from tho probable successor
Of the late DR.. Gresley, ordering the poor GU
rate to seek employment In some cline more
con.cnial 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 hypcrb0rcan 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 DOrsetshrc. Tho engagement, Of
course. was to be ns valid MS ever, though
matrimony was 10 be postponed, more intlcii-
nitely even than heretofore. But If Mary could
write novels and sell them, then how glorious
would IL be to follow her lover into Dorset
shire | The Rev. Arthur Donnc went, and the
curate who came in his place was n married
man, wanting house, ind not lodgings. So
Mary Grcslcy persevered with her second no.
vel, and completed IL before she WIS eighteen.
The literary friend In the neighbo:hood-to
the chance OF whose acquaintance I was in
dcbtcd for my subsequent friendship with
Mary Grcsley-fOund tins work 10 b9 Il great
Improvement on the first. lie was on elderly
man, who had been engaged nearly all his life
In the conduct OF q scientific and agricultural
periodical, and was the last mlnn whom
sh0nd have taken as sound critic on works
truction, and the composition of sentences he
was acquainted; and io assured Mary that her
progress had been great. Should she burn
that second story? she asked him. She would,
II he so recommended, and begin another the
next day. Such was not his advice. II have
n friend In London" said he, "who has 10 do
with such things, and you shall &c TO him. [
will give you q letter." He rave h..r he fatal