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The operation was over; the news was good; they hoped that he wouldsoon be with
them again. It was partly that my father generally discoursed on such a very
extensive scale. Atthe christening of their first child Coleridge talked for
six hourswithout stopping.
She might have done better, she might have
doneworse, he observed. All he could do was to cast hismagic spell.
Holroyd has
probably told you that Miss Gould is now Mrs.
And much of her work wasdone
lastingly; editors still stand on the foundations she truly laid. For the first
time since she was a woman, Saraheard him talk.
Like herfather she had a
Surinam toad in her head, breeding other toads.
Or again, politics interested
herintensely, and Turners pictures. Here, he seems to say, is all that
isactually known about Shelleys life.
He annotated, he edited, he set down what
hecould remember of the wonderful voice. She was learned he knew,and he was
proud of it; but he was unprepared, Mr. In this, of course, we are mistaken;
glasses we wear, thoughwe cannot see them. One must go on, said Shelley, until
one is stopped. His dress was careless, of course, but it wasdistinguished; he
wore his clothes like a gentleman. JusticeColeridge objected, passages in
Aristophanes that they had better skip? She might have done better, she might
have doneworse, he observed.
He is one hum and vibration of
painfulemotion.
Anguish shoots through every fibreof his being.
Could she have
skipped the moralshe could have told us much about that strange marriage. She
did not copy him, she insisted;she was him.
That summer night hedrew out the
two young men who were staying in the house, Fred North andMr. The old train of
bitter thoughtsis set in motion once more. But the effect on the man of his two
incompatible auntsdeveloped a conflict in his nature. It was fine, luckily, and
the moon was up. He has opinions, but he does notobtrude them.
The arms
alreadyhung flabby at his side; he was powerless to raise them. His attitude to
Shelley is kind but not condescending.
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