Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales of AllCountries” edition , email
Why Mrs. General Talboys first madeup her mind to pass the winter of 1859 at Rome I never clearlyunderstood. To myself she explained her purposes, soonafter her arrival at the Eternal City, by declaring, in her ownenthusiastic manner, that she was inspired by a burning desire todrink fresh at the still living fountains of classical poetry andsentiment. But I always thought that there was somethingmore than this in it. Classical poetry and sentiment weredoubtless very dear to her; but so also, I imagine, were thesubstantial comforts of Hardover Lodge, the General’s housein Berkshire; and I do not think that she would have emigratedfor the winter had there not been some slight domesticmisunderstanding. Let this, however, be fully madeclear,—that such misunderstanding, if it existed, must havebeen simply an affair of temper. No impropriety of conducthas, I am very sure, ever been imputed to the lady. TheGeneral, as all the world knows, is hot; and Mrs. Talboys, whenthe 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 cameamong us English at Rome, and soon succeeded in obtaining forherself a comfortable footing in our society. We allthought her more remarkable for her mental attributes than forphysical perfection; but, nevertheless, she was, in her own way,a sightly woman. She had no special brilliance, either ofeye or complexion, such as would produce sudden flames insusceptible hearts; nor did she seem to demand instant homage bythe form and step of a goddess; but we found her to be agood-looking woman of some thirty or thirty-three years of age,with soft, peach-like cheeks,—rather too like those of acherub, with sparkling eyes which were hardly large enough, withgood teeth, a white forehead, a dimpled chin and a fullbust. Such, outwardly, was Mrs. General Talboys. Thedescription of the inward woman is the purport to which these fewpages will be devoted.
There are two qualities to which the best of mankind are muchsubject, which are nearly related to each other, and as to whichthe world has not yet decided whether they are to be classedamong the good or evil attributes of our nature. Men andwomen are under the influence of them both, but men oftenestundergo the former, and women the latter. They are ambitionand enthusiasm. Now Mrs. Talboys was an enthusiasticwoman.
As to ambition, generally as the world agrees with Mark Antonyin stigmatising it as a grievous fault, I am myself clear that itis a virtue; but with ambition at present we have noconcern. Enthusiasm also, as I think, leans tovirtue’s side; or, at least, if it be a fault, of allfaults it is the prettiest. But then, to partake at all ofvirtue, or even to be in any degree pretty, the enthusiasm mustbe true.
Bad coin is known from good by the ring of it; and so is badenthusiasm. Let the coiner be ever so clever at his art, inthe coining of enthusiasm the sound of true gold can never beimparted to the false metal. And I doubt whether thecleverest she in the world can make false enthusiasm palatable tothe taste of man. To the taste of any woman the enthusiasmof another woman is never very palatable.
We understood at Home that Mrs. Talboys had a considerablefamily,—four or five children, we were told; but shebrought with her only one daughter, a little girl about twelveyears of age. She had torn herself asunder, as she told me,from the younger nurslings of her heart, and had left them to thecare of a devoted female attendant, whose love was all butmaternal. And then she said a word or two about theGeneral, in terms which ma