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1Author:  Sedgwick Catharine Maria 1789-1867Add
 Title:  Clarence, Or, a Tale of Our Own Times  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: It was one of the brightest and most beautiful days of February. Winter had graciously yielded to the melting influence of the soft breezes from the Indian's paradise—the sweet southwest. The atmosphere was a pure transparency, a perfect ether; and Broadway, the thronged thoroughfare through which the full tide of human existence pours, the pride of the metropolis of our western world, presented its gayest and most brilliant aspect. “My dear Madam—A severe pressure of pub “lic business (private concerns I should have put “aside) has prevented my expressing in person, the “deep sympathy I feel in your late bereavement. “The loss of a husband, and such a husband is “indeed a calamity; but we must all bow to the “dispensations of an all-wise Providence. “Tell me, my dear friend, if you love the coun “try, (to borrow your legal phrase,) per se? Here “I am surrounded by magnificent scenery, in the “midst of `bowery summer,' in the month of flowers, “and singing-birds, the leafy month of June, and “yet I am sighing for New York. It is Madame “de Staël, I think, who says that `love and religion “only can enable us to enjoy nature.' The first, “alas! alas! is (for is read ought to be,) passé to “me; and the last I have exclusively associated with “the sick-chamber and other forms of gloom and “misery. “My dear Madam—It is I believe canonical to “answer first the conclusion of a lady's letter. My “reply to your queries about the Clarences will ac “count for Mr. C.'s interest in me, without involv “ing any reason so flattering as that you have sug “gested. My uncle, Gerald Roscoe, was one of “that unlucky brotherhood that have fallen under “your lash, and so far from being a `dropped link, “not missed, and soon forgotten,' he had that “warmth and susceptibility of heart, that activity “and benevolence of disposition, that strengthen “and brighten the chain that binds man to man, “and earth to heaven. Blessed be his memory! “I never see an old bachelor that my heart does “not warm to him for his sake. But to my story. “My uncle—a Howard in his charities—(you “touched a nerve, my dear Mrs. Layton, when “you satarised old bachelors)—my uncle, on a “visit to our city alms-house, espied a little boy, “who, to use his own phrase, had a certain some “thing about him that took his heart. This certain “something, by the way, he saw in whoever needed “his kindness. The boy too, at the first glance “was attracted to my uncle. Children are the “keenest physiognomists—never at fault in their first “loves. It suddenly occurred to my uncle, that an “errand-boy was indispensable to him. The child “was removed to my grandfather's, and soon made “such rapid advances in his patron's affections that “he sent him to the best schools in the city, and “promoted him to the parlor, where, universal “sufferance being the rule of my grandfather's “house, he was soon as firmly established as if he “had equal rights with the children of the family. “This child was then, as you probably know, “called Charles Carroll. He was just graduated “with the first honors of Columbia College, when, “within a few days of each other, my grandfather “and uncle died, and the house of Roscoe & Son “proved to be insolvent. Young Carroll, of course, “was cast on his own energies. He would have “preferred the profession of law, but he had fallen “desperately in love with a Miss Lynford, who “lived in dependence in her uncle's family. He “could not brook the humiliations which, I suspect, “he felt more keenly than the subject of them, “and he married, and was compelled, by the actual “necessities of existence, to renounce distant ad “vantages for the humble but certain gains of a “clerkship. These particulars I had from my mo “ther. You may not have heard that at the moment “of his accession of property he suffered a calamity “in the death of an only son, which deprived “him of all relish, almost of all consciousness, of “his prosperity. He would gladly have filled “the boy's yawning grave with the wealth which “seemed to fall into his hands at that moment, to “mock him with its impotence. The boy was a “rare gem. I knew him and loved him, and hap “pened to witness his death; and being then at the “impressible season of life, it sunk deeply into “my heart. It was a sudden, and for a long time, “a total eclipse to the poor father. The shock “was aggravated by a bitter self-reproach, for “having, in his engrossing anxiety for the result of “his pending lawsuit, neglected the child's malady “while it was yet curable. “On looking over your letter a second time, my “dear Mrs. Layton, I find there is enough of it “unanswered to give me a pretence for addressing “you again; and as I know no more agreeable “employment of one of my many leisure hours “than communicating with you, I will contrast “your picture of the miseries of rustic hospitality “and rustic habits, with the trials of a poor devil, “condemned to the vulgarity and necessity of drag “ging through the summer months in town. We all look at our present, petty vexations, through “the magnifying end of the glass, and then turning “our instrument, give to the condition of others, the “softness and enchantment of distance. “Madam—I enclose you a remittance, according “to the conjugal request you did me the honor to “transmit through Gerald Roscoe, Esq.; and at the “same time, I take the liberty to forewarn you, that “unless you second—energetically second, my “views and wishes in the — affair, I shall lose “the ability, as I have long ago lost the inclination, “to answer the demands arising from your habits of “reckless expense. I expect you to be at Trenton “by the first of next month. Pedrillo will follow “you there; and there, or at Utica (he leaves all “minor points to her decision) he expects to re “ceive Emilie's hand. He loves Emilie—upon “my soul I believe de does—devotedly. “It is with inexpressible sorrow, my sweetest “friend, that I am compelled to bid you adieu with “out again seeing you. We take our departure “early in the morning. Poor Em' is quite heart“broken about it. We are both under the tyranny “of destiny. I resign all to the despot, save my “affections; and of those, you, dearest, have taken “complete possession. It is not because you are “a heroine of the nineteenth century; that is, prac “tical, rational, dutiful, and all the tedious et ceteras “that I admire you. No, these are qualities that, like “bread and water, are the gross elements of every “day life, but they have nothing to do with that “fine accord of finely touched spirits that common “minds can no more attain than common senses can “take in the music of the spheres. There is no “describing it, but we understand it; do we not? “Dear Gertrude, you must be my friend, you must “love me; you will have much to forgive in me. I “am a wayward creature. Oh, heavens! how infe “rior to you! but there have been crosses in my “destiny. Had I known you sooner, your bland “influence would have given a different color to “my life. You understand me. I disdain the “Procrustes standard of pattern ladies who admit “none to the heaven of their favor, but those “who can walk on a mathematical line, like that “along which a Mahometan passes to his paradise. “My dear Miss Clarence—I have forborne to “disturb your repose after your perilous adventure, “to announce our abrupt departure. Accident in “troduced you into our family cabinet, and as you “are apprised of its secrets, you will not wonder at “poor Randolph's feelings, in consequence of the “disclosures of to-day. My heart pleads for Emi “lie, but my reason tells me, that it is wisest, “discretest, best, to shun any farther intercourse “with so beautiful a creature, who is so careless of “obligations and consequences. Depend on it, “Miss Clarence, I am right in my opinion of the “mother; and though I grieve to say it, poor Emi “lie has bad blood in her veins. I am sustaining “the part of a rigid moralist with Randolph, while “my womanish heart is melting within me. I can “not regard the sweet girl in any other light, than “as a victim—the faults of seventeen are not deli “berate—but I talk as sternly to Randolph, as if I “were Junius Brutus. In compliance with a kind “invitation from your father, we have promised to “visit Clarenceville, on our return from Niagara.
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