SO, then, but for that officious warning, uttered under the balcony at
Luscombe, Kenelm Chillingly might never have had a rival in Walter
Melville. But ill would any reader construe the character of Kenelm,
did he think that such a thought increased the bitterness of his
sorrow. No sorrow in the thought that a noble nature had been saved
from the temptation to a great sin.
The good man does good merely by living. And the good he does may
often mar the plans he formed for his own happiness. But he cannot
regret that Heaven has permitted him to do good.
What Kenelm did feel is perhaps best explained in the letter to Sir
Peter, which is here subjoined:--
"MY DEAREST FATHER,--Never till my dying day shall I forget that
tender desire for my happiness with which, overcoming all worldly
considerations, no matter at what disappointment to your own cherished
plans or ambition for the heir to your name and race, you sent me away
from your roof, these words ringing in my ear like the sound of
joy-bells, 'Choose as you will, with my blessing on your choice. I
open my heart to admit another child: your wife shall be my daughter.'
It is such an unspeakable comfort to me to recall those words now. Of
all human affections gratitude is surely the holiest; and it blends
itself with the sweetness of religion when it is gratitude to a
father. And, therefore, do not grieve too much for me, when I tell
you that the hopes which enchanted me when we parted are not to be
fulfilled. Her hand is pledged to another,--another with claims upon
her preference to which mine cannot be compared; and he is himself,
putting aside the accidents of birth and fortune, immeasurably my
superior. In that thought--I mean the thought that the man she
selects deserves her more than I do, and that in his happiness she
will blend her own--I shall find comfort, so soon as I can fairly
reason down the first all-engrossing selfishness that follows the
sense of unexpected and irremediable loss. Meanwhile you will think
it not unnatural that I resort to such aids for change of heart as are
afforded by change of scene. I start for the Continent to-night, and
shall not rest till I reach Venice, which I have not yet seen. I feel
irresistibly attracted towards still canals and gliding gondolas. I
will write to you and to my dear mother the day I arrive. And I trust
to write cheerfully, with full accounts of all I see and encounter.
Do not, dearest father, in your letters to me, revert or allude to
that grief which even the tenderest word from your own tender self
might but chafe into pain more sensitive. After all, a disappointed
love is a very common lot. And we meet every day, men--ay, and women
too--who have known it, and are thoroughly cured. The manliest of our
modern lyrical poets has said very nobly, and, no doubt, very justly,
"To bear is to conquer our fate.
"Ever your loving son,
"K. C."