As Bell wished her sister good-night with perhaps
more than her usual affection, it was evident that
Lily’s words and eager tone had in some way
pleased her, in spite of their opposition to the request
which she had made. And Lily was aware that it
was so.
Mrs Roper’s Boarding-House
I have said that John Eames had been petted by none
but his mother, but I would not have it supposed,
on this account, that John Eames had no friends.
There is a class of young men who never get petted,
though they may not be the less esteemed, or perhaps
loved. They do not come forth to the world as
Apollos, nor shine at all, keeping what light they
may have for inward purposes. Such young men are
often awkward, ungainly, and not yet formed in their
gait; they straggle with their limbs, and are shy;
words do not come to them with ease, when words are
required, among any but their accustomed associates.
Social meetings are periods of penance to them, and
any appearance in public will unnerve them. They
go much about alone, and blush when women speak to
them. In truth, they are not as yet men, whatever
the number may be of their years; and, as they are
no longer boys, the world has found for them the ungraceful
name of hobbledehoy.
Such observations, however, as I have been enabled
to make in this matter have led me to believe that
the hobbledehoy is by no means the least valuable
species of the human race. When I compare the
hobbledehoy of one or two and twenty to some finished
Apollo of the same age, I regard the former as unripe
fruit, and the latter as fruit that is ripe.
Then comes the question as to the two fruits.
Which is the better fruit, that which ripens early,—which
is, perhaps, favoured with some little forcing apparatus,
or which, at least, is backed by the warmth of a southern
wall; or that fruit of slower growth, as to which
nature works without assistance, on which the sun
operates in its own time,—or perhaps never
operates if some ungenial shade has been allowed to
interpose itself? The world, no doubt, is in
favour of the forcing apparatus or of the southern
wall. The fruit comes certainly, and at an assured
period. It is spotless, speckless, and of a certain
quality by no means despicable. The owner has
it when he wants it, and it serves its turn. But,
nevertheless, according to my thinking, the fullest
flavour of the sun is given to that other fruit,—is
given in the sun’s own good time, if so be that
no ungenial shade has interposed itself. I like
the smack of the natural growth, and like it, perhaps,
the better because that which has been obtained has
been obtained without favour.
But the hobbledehoy, though he blushes when women
address him, and is uneasy even when he is near them,
though he is not master of his limbs in a ball-room,
and is hardly master of his tongue at any time, is
the most eloquent of beings, and especially eloquent
among beautiful women. He enjoys all the triumphs
of a Don Juan, without any of Don Juan’s heartlessness,
and is able to conquer in all encounters, through
the force of his wit and the sweetness of his voice.
But this eloquence is heard only by his own inner ears,
and these triumphs are the triumphs of his imagination.
