Transcriber's Note:
A Table of Contents has been added.
THE
DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER,
AND
MY BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBOUR.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY & SON,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1874.
The Right of Translation is reserved.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| CHAPTER I. | 1 |
| CHAPTER II. | 29 |
| CHAPTER III. | 50 |
| CHAPTER IV. | 75 |
| CHAPTER V. | 101 |
| CHAPTER VI. | 120 |
| CHAPTER VII. | 145 |
| CHAPTER VIII. | 170 |
| CHAPTER IX. | 191 |
| CHAPTER X. | 216 |
| CHAPTER XI. | 240 |
| CHAPTER XII. | 263 |
MY
BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBOUR.
CHAPTER I.
I found Martelli to be more useful tome than I could have expected. He hadcalled himself practical, and he was practical.He was used to the punctilious regularityof schools, to the difficult inattention ofpupils; and the habits these experienceshad engendered well qualified him in onesense for the post I had offered. In onesense I say: by which I mean my need ofan influence to direct my studies and keep[Pg 2]me to them. But in him I missed what Ihad sought, and would have taken in preference,could I have found. Sympathies hehad in abundance, but they were commonplace.He shone indeed; but rather withthe borrowed light of letters than theluminous atmosphere of imagination. Hecould not comprehend me, though he wouldnever appear puzzled. He would miss adelicate implication. In taste he was asensualist, esteeming the full-blooded, florid,and passionate conceptions of art above herchaste aerial hints and tender moonlitbeauties. Yet he was a good and soundscholar. His knowledge of Greek andLatin was singularly exact. He was deeplyread in modern literature; and his surprisingmemory enabled him to display tothe utmost advantage the various and carefullystored treasures of his mind. Butthough his erudition might have enabledhim to have edited with accuracy the most[Pg 3]obscure work in the whole range of ancientliterature, his imagination would not haveyielded hi