The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-05-17
Victor Hugo Love.

A1uSO lot AUST EOuCleF was NOT RICK
ing in romance, though of the most del
icate and innocent kind. They hat
known each other as children, and little
Victor had already spent many al
evening III gazing silently on his future
wife. The first direct avowal made be
tween them (and here the poet trans
crossed the continental etiquette of
courtship) was when he was II and she
was 16. They were playing in the gar.
den for boy of II is only q child in
Franco, and in burst of confidence
the young girl said, "Tell me your
greatest secret and l will tell you
mine" "My greatest secret" said Vie
tor, lis that l love you" "My greatest
secret is that love you" echoed Adele.
But though they had spoken, the kisses
which we consider proper to seal the
troth do not appear to have followed.
In an ode written later on the poet re-
marks, with his usual hyperbole of
phrase, 'You loved me without trans
ports, loved you without madness"
Adele soon became frightened at the
audacity of their affection, and when
she shows the verses Victor has sent
her, her girl friends are scandalized.
They say that he will lose his respect
for her, but to reassure her he signs
his letters, "Your husband" He tells
her that she has become the daughter
of General Hugo by pledging herself to
him, and the Napoleonic legend was
sufficiently strong to make the son of a
hero of the empire worth loving. The
result of even so small fight of ro-
nance as the lovers seeing each other
alone was inevitable.
When a year had elapsed, the parents
found out the affair, and relations were
broken off between the two families.
Tied to his mothers apron strings
albeit he was twenty, Victor wept,
then broke into furious diatribe, and
sat down and wrote a novel. But
however useful the sorrow of his heart
may have been as material, he did not
give up hope. The father of his young
lady having written a Manual of
he indicted a eulogistic
review, and as this did not draw the
stern parent he sent him his ode on
NJ. Foucher replied with thanks, not
to the poet, but to the poets mother,
and the chasm became a little mar
rover owing to this Ingenious use of
literature.
Love sickness began to tell on the
poet, and he made up his mind at all
costs to learn if Adele loved him still.
Like most young ladies of the period,
she was taking drawing lessons, and
ne obtained an interview with her by
he prosaic means of stopping her in
The street. 1t was somewhat heroic
for a French lover to do it, and his
bravery was rewarded; then the
Interrupted correspondence again. The
over watches her unperceived when
she goes to mass; he hovers near the
house where he sees her light burning
at night. Then dramatic incident
happens. Victor Hugo's mother dies
suddenly; on the evening of the day
Of the funeral he cannot resist the
dea of seeking consolation from Adele.
He goes to the house where her father
IS giving ball; he enters unperceived,
and sees Adele laughing and talking
gayly. Believing that she does not care
For his sorrow, he rushes out, and some
time will elapse and explanations have
to be made before the wound Is healed.
M. Foucher calls to pay visit of
httt bn ho, ic,r Of vn-
moved till the father takes his daugh-
ter into the country. Victor follows
them and, with the assurance of a
young man, writes to say that he has
seen them with the greatest surprise;
that he would instantly leave the viii
lage had he not accepted several en-
etc. The pity or the sense
of humor of NJ. Foucher was touched,
and he permits an interview, during
which the poet asks for Adele's hand
1t was the romanticist period, and the
father allows au engagement. though
not an "ofticial one" in the hope that
Victor's circumstances will improve
But for the present Victor may only
write to the father, and his passion is
only expressed in very quiet-I might
almost say Official
When the love letters begin again.
the earlier impetuosity and pessimism
have mellowed to more manly strain
The poet is somewhat didactic and had
a great deal of advice to give his sweet
heart, but there was subtle, uncon-
scious fattery in his forbidding her to
let herself be snubbed by other wom-
en-. He is still treading on the clouds
when he remarks that "a man whose
one thought is of an eternity of love
and happiness sees earthly things in
the true proportion they have from the
height. He accepts fortune with
calm, and sorrow with serenity, be-
cause all that changes around him is
but accessory to a union which cannot
change" Happy lover, and, like that
other described by poet whose love
never came to flower in the immortal
line
Forever wilt thou love and she be fart
Adele still seems to be thinking of
the unconventionalty of their love. An
English girl would not ask for so many
assurances of respect, but Victor had
to inform his betrothed categorically
that her behavior had been perfect
He talks very seriously to her, and he
is scarcely past his twenty first year
when he writes, independently of my
sorrows and domestic troubles" (his
father, the general, gave him a very
small allowance), 81 have to resign