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Mrs. General Talboys By: Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) |
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MRS. GENERAL TALBOYS by Anthony Trollope
Why Mrs. General Talboys first made up her mind to pass the winter
of 1859 at Rome I never clearly understood. To myself she explained
her purposes, soon after her arrival at the Eternal City, by
declaring, in her own enthusiastic manner, that she was inspired by
a burning desire to drink fresh at the still living fountains of
classical poetry and sentiment. But I always thought that there was
something more than this in it. Classical poetry and sentiment were
doubtless very dear to her; but so also, I imagine, were the
substantial comforts of Hardover Lodge, the General's house in
Berkshire; and I do not think that she would have emigrated for the
winter had there not been some slight domestic misunderstanding.
Let this, however, be fully made clear, that such misunderstanding,
if it existed, must have been simply an affair of temper. No
impropriety of conduct has, I am very sure, ever been imputed to the
lady. The General, as all the world knows, is hot; and Mrs.
Talboys, when the sweet rivers of her enthusiasm are unfed by
congenial waters, can, I believe, make herself disagreeable. But be this as it may, in November, 1859, Mrs. Talboys came among us
English at Rome, and soon succeeded in obtaining for herself a
comfortable footing in our society. We all thought her more
remarkable for her mental attributes than for physical perfection;
but, nevertheless, she was, in her own way, a sightly woman. She
had no special brilliance, either of eye or complexion, such as
would produce sudden flames in susceptible hearts; nor did she seem
to demand instant homage by the form and step of a goddess; but we
found her to be a good looking woman of some thirty or thirty three
years of age, with soft, peach like cheeks, rather too like those
of a cherub, with sparkling eyes which were hardly large enough,
with good teeth, a white forehead, a dimpled chin and a full bust.
Such, outwardly, was Mrs. General Talboys. The description of the
inward woman is the purport to which these few pages will be
devoted. There are two qualities to which the best of mankind are much
subject, which are nearly related to each other, and as to which the
world has not yet decided whether they are to be classed among the
good or evil attributes of our nature. Men and women are under the
influence of them both, but men oftenest undergo the former, and
women the latter. They are ambition and enthusiasm. Now Mrs.
Talboys was an enthusiastic woman. As to ambition, generally as the world agrees with Mark Antony in
stigmatising it as a grievous fault, I am myself clear that it is a
virtue; but with ambition at present we have no concern. Enthusiasm
also, as I think, leans to virtue's side; or, at least, if it be a
fault, of all faults it is the prettiest. But then, to partake at
all of virtue, or even to be in any degree pretty, the enthusiasm
must be true. Bad coin is known from good by the ring of it; and so is bad
enthusiasm. Let the coiner be ever so clever at his art, in the
coining of enthusiasm the sound of true gold can never be imparted
to the false metal. And I doubt whether the cleverest she in the
world can make false enthusiasm palatable to the taste of man. To
the taste of any woman the enthusiasm of another woman is never very
palatable. We understood at Home that Mrs. Talboys had a considerable family,
four or five children, we were told; but she brought with her only
one daughter, a little girl about twelve years of age. She had torn
herself asunder, as she told me, from the younger nurslings of her
heart, and had left them to the care of a devoted female attendant,
whose love was all but maternal. And then she said a word or two
about the General, in terms which made me almost think that this
quasi maternal love extended itself beyond the children... Continue reading book >>
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Fiction |
Literature |
Romance |
Short stories |
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