The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-05-17
WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

fdDAiNdAe0 malta btAuHtuf
daughter of a weIl-to-do banker. After
three years Of ardent eourtship Maria
rejected him. The First Interiude
was ended. Heartbroken and respondent,
he impusiveiy married Catherine
Hogarth. Years Of unhappiness followed.
Twenty-Five years later began the
Second Interlude." Dickens was now
forty-four, and the father of nine chill
dren. Maria had been married for years
to a staid. small business man and nao
two children. She wrote to Dickens
He responded with an ardOr which re-
Elected the love he had felt in his heart
all his life for Maria Beadnell. We have
already printed one of the letters Of the
"Second InterIude" which has been pro-
nounced the greatest love letter ever
written" and also the famous camou-
fage letter" Apparently Maria ao-
yances were to establish an intimacy
closer than that of mere platonic frleno-
shin. Though Maria had retained much
of her beauty. her life had been In
narrow circle. whereas Dickens had now
become an important figure. His IN
terest cooled.
I'm his letter of Feb. %, Dickens
cautioned Maria that he was
"a dangerous man to be seen
with" and it is easy to imagine
what a flame of scandal would
have sprung up if it became
known that he was having covert
meetings with the resuScitated
Dora" of his David COpperfield;
that he had written her long, en-
dearing love letters to a secret
address, then at the same time
a camouflage note to her home;
that he made an appointment
with her to meet him at his own
home when all the household
were out, excepting only himself.
Every one would have wanted
to know why, if his intentions
were honorable, he could not have
said what he had to say, in let
tiers addressed to her home; why
he felt it necessary to assure her
that she need observe no restraint
in writing him at his own house;
and when he invited her there,
why he told her to ask first for
Mrs. Dickens, who at that time
would almost certainly be out.
The great majority would have
misconstrued his real motives in
all these actions, which on the
surface would have looked very
questionable. And no one short
of his closest friends would have
denied the public its delectable
feast of scandal by trying to ex-
plain the why's and wherefores
that lay beneath the surface.
IN those dayS-unlike our own.
i the public was inclined to eX-
ercise more diligence in super
viSing an authors family rela-
tionS than they did in determin-
ing the real merit of his writings
on the theory, perhaps, that
posterity would look after the
latter.
Three centuries ago the learned
Selden observed that "of all &C
lions of mans life, his marri-
age relations do least concern
other people; yet of all actions of
our life these are most meddled
with by other people" This was
notably true in Shelleys case.
Above all things else, Dickens
loved notoriety, but not the sort
of notoriety Maria Winter could
have given him with the material
he had unwisely placed in her
hands. 1t is therefore apparent
that of all the women in the world
she was the most dangerous" for
him to get mixed up" with at
that precarious period of his life.
With all his letters in her pos
session there was no knowing
what desperate measures she
might resort to if he provoked
her. Some newspaper or peri
odical would doubtless have paid
handsomely for his three letters
of Feb. 10, Is and %, and their
publication at that time, with his
own positive identification of Mrs.
Winter as Dora" would have
created a turmoil in which his
feelings, and probably his repu-
tation. would have suffered ire
parably.
MFRS. WINTER had very little
N1 to lose, and a great deal to
gain, at least in notOriety; for
if it were known that this great
and only acknowledged love of
Dickens life had suddenly risen
from the grave to which he con-
signed her in David Copper
field, she would easily have be-
come the most sensational woman
in England