In an unfinished tale, Margaret has given the following studies of character. She is describing two of the friends of the hero of her story. Unquestionably the traits here given were taken from life, though it might not be easy to recognize the portrait of any individual in either sketch. Yet we insert it here to show her own idea of this relation, and her fine feeling of the action and reaction of these subtle intimacies.
‘Now, however, I found companions, in thought, at
least. One, who had great effect on my mind, I may call
Lytton. He was as premature as myself; at thirteen a
man in the range of his thoughts, analyzing motives,
and explaining principles, when he ought to have been
playing cricket, or hunting in the woods. The young
Arab, or Indian, may dispense with mere play, and
enter betimes into the histories and practices of
manhood, for all these are, in their modes of life, closely
connected with simple nature, and educate the body
no less than the mind; but the same good cannot be
said of lounging lazily under a tree, while mentally
accompanying Gil Blas through his course of intrigue
and adventure, and visiting with him the impure
atmosphere of courtiers, picaroons, and actresses. This
was Lytton’s favorite reading; his mind, by nature
subtle rather than daring, would in any case have
found its food in the now hidden workings of
character and passion, the by-play of life, the unexpected
and seemingly incongruous relations to be found there.
He loved the natural history of man, not religiously,
but for entertainment. What he sought, he found, but
paid the heaviest price. All his later days were
poisoned by his subtlety, which made it impossible for him
