The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-05-17
The Romantic and Beautiful
BY II. II. HARPER

HAD she Deen so OlSpOSeu, SIle
could have used his letters to
extort almost any amount Of
money at his command.
Considering these impending
dangers, which must have been
manifest to Dickens, there is lit
tie doubt that he had good reason
to reflect on the adage, Hell
hath no fury like woman
ascorned"; and that he spent
many anxious moments trying to-
figure out how to keep her friend
ship, and at the same time get
her off his hands. To have de-
manded the letters back would
have been worse than useless; it
would have been an open confess
sion of the desperate weakness of
his position.
While she had not made any
threat of reprisal, it was perfectly
plain that she had no intention
Of being discarded as unceremo-
niously as she herself had for
merly discarded him. 1t, there
fore, became his plain duty to "let
her down easy; and the manner
in which he attempted to accom-
plish this feat does him great
credit both as a strategist and as
an author.
DEING physically indisposed
ID with a bad cold, Dickens
would hardly have taken the
pains to make all the excuses and
explanations in the following let
ter had he not felt the circum-
stances demanded it.
In biographical Importance this
letter probably exceeds any pas
sage of equal length ever written
by him, or about him. and had
Mrs. Winter done nothing else
but furnish the occasion for writ
ing it, she would be entitled to
the gratitude of the literary world.
Tuesday, third April, 1855.
My Dear Maria:
Going down to Ashford this day
week, already with bad cold, I
increased it so much by getting
into the intense heat consequent
upon a reading Of three hours and
then coming up in the night
(Which I was obliged to do, having
. business in town next morning.,
that I was very unwell all the
week, and on Friday night. 1
came home at 9 o'clock to bed
A necessity is upon me now-aS
at most times-of wandering about
in my own wild way, to think, 1
could no more resist this on Sun
day or yesterday, than a man
dispense with food, or a horse can
help himself from being driven. 1
hold my inventive capacity on the
stern condition that it must mas
ter my whole life, often have COM
plete possession of me; it makes
it's own demands upon me, and
sometimes for months together
puts everything else away from
me.
If 1 had not known long ago
that my place could never be held,
unless 1 were at any moment
ready to devote myself to it en-
tirely, I should have dropped out
of it very soon. All this I can
hardly expect you to understand
or the reStlessness and way
wardness of an authors mind.
You have never seen it before you,
or lived with it, or had occasion to
think or care about it, and you
can not have the necessary con-
sideration for it.
1T is only half an hour"-"it
is only an afternoon"-"it is only
an evening"-people say to me
over and over again-but they
don't know that it is impossible
to command ones self, sometimes,
to any stipulated and set disposal
of five minutes-or that the mere
consciousness of an engagement
vail sometimes worry a whole day.
These are the penalties paid for
writing books.
Whoever is devoted to an art
must be content to deliver himself
wholly to it, and to find his
recompense in it. 1 am grieved if
you suspect me of not wanting to
see you, but I can't help it; 1 must
go my way whether or no.
I thought you would understand
that in sending the card for the
box, 1 sent an assurance that
there was nothing amiSS.
I am pleased to find that you
were all so much interested with
the play My ladies say that the
first part is too painful and wants
relief. I have been going to see
it a dozen times, but 1 have never
seen it yet, and never may. Ma
dame Celeste is injured thereby
(you see how unreasonable people
are) and says in the Green Room
with a very tight cheek, IN.
Dickens est artistic! Mais il ma
jamais WI Janet Pride!"
1t is like breath of fresh spring