New-York tribune., 1901-06-18
DICKENS AS MATCHMAKER.
LETTERS SAID TO BE FROM HIS PEN

group of letters ascribed TO Charles Dickens
and exhibiting him IN the light OF a kindly match
maker is 10 be found in the current number of
The Saturday Evening Post" They said
have been written after his appearance at char
liable entertainment in Liverpool the musical part
Of which provided by a very beautiful young
girl. Her graces charmed him. they did a
friend of his, who, after Dickens returned TO Lon
don, st fingered near the lady. This friend $50
the taleD presently wrote 20 the novelist a
letter which evoked answer. from which these
passages may be quoted:
l never had imagined you remaining in Liverpool
or seriously admirlng her. Forgive me when / say
that dld not thlnh II iay IN your temper or habit
long custom. | supposed you had returned to
Yorkshire ! expected you in town any day-and
have often wondered within myself whether you
would still have an interest in recalling, with
her uncommon character and wonderful endow-
ments. ! know that in many points /
what pranclng hobbies!-and. although l knew that
the impression she had made on me true
ture might have been prepared 10 receive and
to ezaggerate ii unconscousy and to keep II green
you might have conceived had withered. So much
in the first instance
You ask write, and think you want me
10 write freely. ! will tell you what would do
myself If | were in your case. and will tell you
If had ali your independent means. and twenty
times my own reputation and fame-and felt as
were IN your pace b 70 The reeol,t;o w1uid f nor nor
own heart which hesitation would imply. but would
win her IL / could. ] would answer il to myself If
any worlds breath whispered me that / had known
her but few days that hours of hers years
In the lives Of common women. That il is In such
nature TO do at what less ethereal creatures
must be long in doing That. man saw
a soul or caught its flight no man
1Ire in by rule and rod. And that IL has a right in
such lofty development TO pitch all forms laid down
bv bodies TO the devil-the only being, far |
know. who never i'm love himself, or inspired
And 10 the father / would point out in very ten
derness and sorrow for this gentle creature, who
otherwise is lost this sad world, which needs
another heaven knows, TO set IL rfght-lost in her
youth as surely as she lves-that the to
which he IS deVoting her should not be called her
life but death: for its speedy end is certain.
sa " an angels message in her face that day, that
smote me 10 the heart He may not know this.
being ALWAYS with her; il is very likely he does
not: and | would tell IL him Repose. change.
mind al rest foreign climate, would be. in spring
| time Ike hers the dawning Of a new existence.
believe I do believe and hope that this would save
her and that many happy years hence she would
be strong and hardy. But at the worst, contem-
nlatfng the chance the distant chance in such a
case Of what Is so dreadful; could say in solemn
and religious earnestness that could bear better
her passing from my arms 10 heaven than could
endure the thought OF coldly turning of into the
world again 10 see her more to have my very
name forgotten her TO lose the recollection
n. her myself but at odd times and in remorseful
rlances backward. and only to have the old
thoughts stirred at last by some indirerent per-
son saying You recollect her! An she's dead
AS live I write the Truth. and feel IL.
The romance of the friend and the beautiful girl.
as told I'm 1.-The Saturday Evening Post" ended in
happiness after the writing of various other letters
also ascribed to the novelist