The Argosy — page 282: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Mrs. Henry Wood. © | 261 grace and dignity. Her constitution was remarkably sound, but the body henceforth was to be frail, delicate, absolutely without muscular power. She could at no time raise an ordinary weight, or ever carry anything heavier than a small book or a parasol. Whether this weakness of the spine had anything to do with the fall when she was thrown over the hedge by Mrs. Tipton, the house- keeper : or whether it was a certain weakness born with her, and which had to develop itself in any case: or whether the strength and activity of the brain overpowered the weaker body: this can never be known. In any case it was to be. I think it was probably due to the latter cause, for many writers have suffered in a similar manner. It was once said to me by one who knew all three, that if you followed Miss Mitford, Mrs. Barrett Browning, and Mrs. Henry Wood down a street, walking side by side, you could scarcely tell one from the other, so much were their figures alike. Another, who at this moment occurs to me, was Julia Kavanagh. She has told me that in early life she suffered exactly as my mother had suffered ; but she was even smaller and shorter, and the mischief cn her case was more evident. She, too, had large, beautiful brown eyes, with a singular softness and sweetness about them, through which one saw shining the spirit of purity and devotion. There is no doubt that the cultivation of the intellect is often pur- chased at the expense of muscular power. ‘The constitution may remain vigorous, but whatever is done or accomplished in life has to be done through the brain. Bodily toil or exertion becomes impossible. With my mother the frailty of the body was so pronounced that every word of ‘“ East Lynne” was written in a reclining chair with her manuscript paper upon her knees. VII. \VHEN about twenty years of age, trouble came toherhome. ‘Trouble not from within but from without. Not the overwhelming disasters that overtook many households, but sufficient to make a marked change in her life. It was about this time that Huskisson, with the desire for ‘‘ Free Trade” which has since characterised a certain number of English statesmen, opened the British ports for the introduction of foreign goods. The immediate effect upon the English glove manufacturers was disastrous. Men of limited works and means were ruined and dis- appeared for ever. ‘Those who could weather the storm did so at ammense sacrifices. Amongst these was Mr. Price. Ever thoughtful and considerate for others, and especially so for those beneath him or dependent upon him, though he employed a very large number of workpeople, COMICMHOOOKS.c©