第76章 TWO WINTERS(2)

On the whole,I doubt whether my physical proceedings will set the Thames on fire.Give my love to Anthony's Charlotte;also remember me affectionately to the Carlyles."--At this time,too,John Mill,probably encouraged by Sterling,arrived in Falmouth,seeking refuge of climate for a sickly younger Brother,to whom also,while he continued there,and to his poor patient,the doors and hearts of this kind family were thrown wide open.Falmouth,during these winter weeks,especially while Mill continued,was an unexpectedly engaging place to Sterling;and he left it in spring,for Clifton,with a very kindly image of it in his thoughts.So ended,better than it might have done,his first year's flight from the Clifton winter.

In April,1840,he was at his own hearth again;cheerily pursuing his old labors,--struggling to redeem,as he did with a gallant constancy,the available months and days,out of the wreck of so many that were unavailable,for the business allotted him in this world.His swift,decisive energy of character;the valiant rally he made again and ever again,starting up fresh from amid the wounded,and cheerily storming in anew,was admirable,and showed a noble fund of natural health amid such an element of disease.Somehow one could never rightly fancy that he was diseased;that those fatal ever-recurring downbreaks were not almost rather the penalties paid for exuberance of health,and of faculty for living and working;criminal forfeitures,incurred by excess of self-exertion and such irrepressible over-rapidity of movement:and the vague hope was habitual with us,that increase of years,as it deadened this over-energy,would first make the man secure of life,and a sober prosperous worker among his fellows.It was always as if with a kind of blame that one heard of his being ill again!Poor Sterling;--no man knows another's burden:these things were not,and were not to be,in the way we had fancied them!

Summer went along in its usual quiet tenor at Clifton;health good,as usual while the warm weather lasted,and activity abundant;the scene as still as the busiest could wish."You metropolitan signors,"writes Sterling to his Father,"cannot conceive the dulness and scantiness of our provincial chronicle."Here is a little excursion to the seaside;the lady of the family being again,--for good reasons,--in a weakly state:--"_To Edward Sterling,Esq.,Knightsbridge,London_.

"PORTSHEAD,BRISTOL,1st Sept.,1840.

"MY DEAR FATHER,--This place is a southern headland at the mouth of the Avon.Susan,and the Children too,were all suffering from languor;and as she is quite unfit to travel in a carriage,we were obliged to move,if at all,to some place accessible by water;and this is the nearest where we could get the fresher air of the Bristol Channel.We sent to take a house,for a week;and came down here in a steamer yesterday morning.It seems likely to do every one good.We have a comfortable house,with eight rather small bedrooms,for which we pay four guineas and a half for the week.We have brought three of our own maids,and leave one to take care of the house at Clifton.

"A week ago my horse fell with me,but did not hurt seriously either himself or me:it was,however,rather hard that,as there were six legs to be damaged,the one that did scratch itself should belong to the part of the machine possessing only two,instead of the quadrupedal portion.I grazed about the size of a halfpenny on my left knee;and for a couple of days walked about as if nothing had happened.I found,however,that the skin was not returning correctly;and so sent for a doctor:he treated the thing as quite insignificant,but said I must keep my leg quiet for a few days.It is still not quite healed;and I lie all day on a sofa,much to my discomposure;but the thing is now rapidly disappearing;and I hope,in a day or two more,I shall be free again.I find I can do no work,while thus crippled in my leg.The man in Horace who made verses _stans pede in uno_had the advantage of me.

"The Great Western came in last night about eleven,and has just been making a flourish past our windows;looking very grand,with four streamers of bunting,and one of smoke.Of course I do not yet know whether I have Letters by her,as if so they will have gone to Clifton first.This place is quiet,green and pleasant;and will suit us very well,if we have good weather,of which there seems every appearance.

"Milnes spent last Sunday with me at Clifton;and was very amusing and cordial.It is impossible for those who know him well not to like him.--I send this to Knightsbridge,not knowing where else to hit you.

Love to my Mother.

"Your affectionate,"JOHN STERLING."

The expected "Letters by the Great Western"are from Anthony,now in Canada,doing military duties there.The "Milnes"is our excellent Richard,whom all men know,and truly whom none can know well without even doing as Sterling says.--In a week the family had returned to Clifton;and Sterling was at his poetizings and equitations again.

His grand business was now Poetry;all effort,outlook and aim exclusively directed thither,this good while.