MihaElla > Recent Status Updates

“What can he mean?” thought Margaret,—“what could he mean by speaking so, as if I were always thinking that he cared for me, when I know he does not; he cannot. His mother will have said all those cruel things about me to him. But I won’t care for him. I surely am mistress enough of myself to control this wild, strange, miserable feeling, which tempted me even to betray my own dear Frederick,...

I dare say, there’s many a woman makes as sad a mistake as I have done, and only finds it out too late. And how proudly and impertinently I spoke to him that day! But I did not know then. It has come upon me little by little, and I don’t know where it began. Now I won’t give way. I shall find it difficult to behave in the same way to him, with this miserable consciousness upon me;

Yes! he knew how she would love. He had not loved her without gaining that instinctive knowledge of what capabilities were in her. Her soul would walk in glorious sunlight if any man was worthy, by his power of loving, to win back her love.

“But, Margaret, don’t get to use these horrid Milton words. ‘Slack of work:’ it is a provincialism. What will your aunt Shaw say, if she hears you use it on her return?”

“Oh, mamma! don’t try and make a bugbear of aunt Shaw,” said Margaret, laughing. “Edith picked up all sorts of military slang from Captain Lennox, and aunt Shaw never took any notice of it.”

One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you to be loved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay, I, if I would, cannot cleanse you from it. But I would not, if I could. I have never loved any woman before: my life has been too busy, my thoughts too much absorbed with other things. Now I love, and will love. But do not be afraid of too much expression on my part.

I suspect my ‘gentleman’ includes your ‘true man.

And a great deal more, you would imply. I differ from you. A man is to me a higher and a completer being than a gentleman.

What do you mean? asked Margaret. We must understand the words differently.

I take it that ‘gentleman’ is a term that only describes a person in his relation to others; but when we speak of him as ‘a man,’ we consider him...

I wonder if there are many folk like her down South. She’s like a breath of country air, somehow. She freshens me up above a bit. Who’d ha’ thought that face—as bright and as strong as the angel I dream of—could have known the sorrow she speaks on? I wonder how she’ll sin. All on us must sin. I think a deal on her, for sure.”

Bless her! She’s as sweet as a nut.There are three people I love: it’s missus,Master Frederick, & her.Just them three.That’s all.The rest be hanged,for I don’t know what they’re in the world for.Master was born,I suppose,for to marry missus.If I thought he loved her properly,I might get to love him in time.But he should ha’ made a deal more on her,& not been always reading, reading, thinking, thinking.

“That’s what I call a fine girl!” thought Dr. Donaldson, when he was seated in his carriage, and had time to examine his ringed hand, which had slightly suffered from her pressure. “Who would have thought that little hand could have given such a squeeze? But the bones were well put together, and that gives immense power. What a queen she is!”

I spoke hastily to you once this evening,& I am afraid, rather rudely.But you know I am but an uncouth Milton manufacturer; will you forgive me?

Certainly,said she, smiling up in his face, the expression of which was somewhat anxious & oppressed,& hardly cleared away as he met her sweet sunny countenance,out of which all the north-wind effect of their discussion had entirely vanished...

Now,in Mr. Thornton’s face the straight brows fell low over the clear,deep-set earnest eyes,which,without being unpleasantly sharp,seemed intent enough to penetrate into the very heart and core of what he was looking at.The lines in the face were few but firm,as if they were carved in marble,& lay principally about the lips,which were slightly compressed over a set of teeth so faultless and beautiful....

“So I am, mother, I am come home to dress!”

“Dress! humph! When I was a girl, young men were satisfied with dressing once in a day. Why should you dress to go and take a cup of tea with an old parson?”

“Mr. Hale is a gentleman, and his wife and daughter are ladies.”

“Wife and daughter! Do they teach too? What do they do? You have never mentioned them.”

Oh,mamma,that shows you never saw Mr.Thornton. He looks like a person who would enjoy battling with every adverse thing he could meet with—enemies,winds,or circumstances.The more it rains & blows,the more certain we are to have him.But I’ll go & help Dixon.I’m getting to be a famous clear-starcher.& he won’t want any amusement beyond talking to papa. Papa,I am really longing to see the Pythias to your Damon

“And what is your correspondent, Mr. Thornton, like?”

“Ask Margaret,” said her husband. “She and he had a long attempt at conversation, while I was away speaking to the landlord.”

“Oh! I hardly know what he is like,” said Margaret, lazily; too tired to tax her powers of description much. And then rousing herself, she said, “He is a tall, broad-shouldered man, about how old, papa?”

“I cannot bear it. I cannot bear to see the sufferings of others. I think I could go through my own with patience. Oh, is there no going back?”

“No, father. It is bad to believe you in error. It would be infinitely worse to have known you a hypocrite.”

She dropped her voice at the last few words, as if entertaining the idea of hypocrisy for a moment in connection with her father savoured of irreverence.

There she stood, very pale and quiet, with her large grave eyes observing everything,—up to every present circumstance however small. They could not understand how her heart was aching all the time, with a heavy pressure that no sighs could lift off or relieve,& how constant exertion for her perceptive faculties was the only way to keep herself from crying out with pain. Moreover, if she gave way, who was to act?

A private tutor! What in the world do manufacturers want with the classics, or literature, or the accomplishments of a gentleman?

Oh, some of them really seem to be fine fellows, conscious of their own deficiencies, which is more than many a man at Oxford is. Some want resolutely to learn, though they have come to man’s estate. Some want their children to be better instructed than they themselves have been..

How different men were to women! Here was she disturbed & unhappy,because her instinct had made anything but a refusal impossible;while he, not many minutes after he had met with a rejection of what ought to have been the deepest,holiest proposal of his life, could speak as if briefs,success,& all its superficial consequences of a good house, clever & agreeable society, were the sole avowed objects of his desires..

Learn to win a lady’s faith
Nobly, as the thing is high;
Bravely, as for life and death—
With a loyal gravity.
Lead her from the festive boards,
Point her to the starry skies,
Guard her, by your truthful words,
Pure from courtship’s flatteries.
MRS. BROWNING

There are forms and ceremonies to be gone through, not so much to satisfy oneself, as to stop the world’s month, without which stoppage there would be very little satisfaction in life. But how would you have a wedding arranged?

Mrs. S said that her only child should marry for love,& sighed emphatically,as if love had not been her motive for marrying the General.Mrs.S enjoyed the romance of the present engagement rather more than her daughter.Not but that Edith was very thoroughly &properly in love;still she would certainly have preferred a good house in Belgravia,to all the picturesqueness of the life which Captain Lennox described at Corfu

She lay curled up on the sofa in the back drawing-room in Harley Street, looking very lovely in her white muslin and blue ribbons. If Titania had ever been dressed in white muslin and blue ribbons, and had fallen asleep on a crimson damask sofa in a back drawing-room, Edith might have been taken for her. Margaret was struck afresh by her cousin’s beauty....

We have taken to criticizing the Creator Himself of late. The world is wrong, we are wrong. If only He had taken our advice, during those first six days!

At a Bohemian Club, I was once drinking coffee with a Novelist, who happened to be a broad-shouldered, athletic man. A fellow-member, joining us, said to the Novelist, "I have just finished that last book of yours; I'll tell you my candid opinion of it." Promptly replied the Novelist, "I give you fair warning—if you do, I shall punch your head." We never heard that candid opinion.

How little we seem to realize this foundation of our life. Herein, if nowhere else, lies our eternity. This Ego shall never die—unless the human race from beginning to end be but a passing jest of the Gods, to be swept aside when wearied of, leaving room for new experiments. These features of mine—we will not discuss their aesthetic value—shall never disappear; modified, varied, but in essential the same,...

There are times when a man is better without the woman,when a woman is better without the man. Love drags us from the depths,makes men and women of us,but if we would climb a little nearer to the stars we must say good-bye to it.We men and women do not show ourselves to each other at our best;too often,I fear,at our worst.The woman's highest ideal of man is the lover;to a man the woman is always the possible beloved

Life is a thing to be lived, not spent, to be faced, not ordered. Life is not a game of chess, the victory to the most knowing; it is a game of cards, one's hand by skill to be made the best of. Is it the wisest who is always the most successful? I think not.

We were in a honeymoon district,in June—the most popular month in the whole year for marriage.Every 2 out of 3 couples found wandering about the New Forest in June are honeymoon couples; the third are going to be.When they travel anywhere it is to the Isle of Wight.We both had on new clothes.Our bags happened to be new.By some evil chance our very umbrellas were new.Our united ages were thirty-seven...

My dear boy,he replied;take my advice,if ever you get married,arrange it so that the honeymoon shall only last a week,& let it be a bustling week into the bargain.Take a Cook's circular tour.Get married on the Saturday morning,cut the breakfast & all that foolishness,& catch the eleven-ten from Charing Cross to Paris.Take her up the Eiffel Tower on Sunday.Lunch at Fontainebleau.Dine at the Maison Doree,&...

A laugh and a sigh, a kiss and good-bye, is our life. Is it worth so much fretting? It is a merry life on the whole. Courage, comrade.