The Marble Faun

205

X

Arguing the same question again he says:

Hilda shall ask herself whether there were not other questions to be considered aside from that single one of Miriam's guilt or innocence; as, for example, whether the close bond of friendship in which we once voluntarily engaged, ought to be severed on account of any unworthiness which we subsequently detected in our friend; for in these unions of hearts--call them marriage or what ever else-we take each other for better, for worse. Availing ourselves of our friend's intimate affection we pledge our own as to be relied upon in every emergency; and what sadder, more desperate emergency could there be than had befallen Miriam ? Who more need the tender succor of the innocent than wretches stained with guilt? And must a selfish care for the spotlessness of our own garments keep us from pressing the guilty ones close to our hearts, wherein, for the very reason that we are innocent, lies their securest refuge from further ill3 ?

But Kenyon thought that Hilda was right, and declared:

But the white, shining purity of Hilda's nature is a thing apart; and she is bound by the undefiled material of which God moulded her to keep that severity which I as well as you have recognized ?

It is said that this trait in Hilda was taken from his wife's character. His son says:

There was one thing she could not bear, and that was moral evil. Every cloud brought over her horizon by the hand of God had a silver lining, but human unkindness, falsehood, agonized and stunned her,- -as in the "Marble Faun " the crime of Miriam and Donatello stunned and agonized Hilda1.

ΧΙ

In June, 1851, he began the "WonderBook ", which in simplicity and eloquence of style, and in lovely wealth of fancy and imagination is equal to anything he produced. It was written rapidly and with great enjoyment, and is the only book he ever published without a gloomy page in it. The humor throughout is exquisite, and though the sentiment often mounts to heaven like Bellerophon's "Winged Steed ", it never outsoars the comprehension of the simplest child. It was finished in a month1

Hawthorne said himself of the "Tanglewood Tales". "I never did anything else so well as these old baby stories1."

But his later work was unsatisfactory.

In order to get "Septimius Felton" off his mind he cast aside the first study for it and re-wrote it rapidly to a conclusion,

Meagre Compensation

207

though the latter part of it was, his son thinks, composed in a spirit of irony towards himself. The whole thing is nonsense, he seems to say; let us see what it looks like1!

XII

His pay for literary work was at first meagre. In 1826 he paid $100 to publish anonymously at his own expense "Fanshawe", a romance which proved unsuccessful, but which has perhaps more movement in it than any other of his stories. S. G. Goodrich, ("Peter Parley") wrote him that had "Fanshawe" been put in the hands of more extensive dealers he believed it would have paid a profit; and offered him $35 for the privilege of inserting "The Gentle Boy" in The Token, with permission to publish it afterwards in his collection of Tales. For the volume of The Token published in 1836 Mr. Goodrich paid him $108 for his contributions; and in the same year Mr. Goodrich offered him $300 to write a volume of 600 12mo pages on "The manners, customs, and civilities of all countries". His friend Bridge writes him in 1836, "Suppose you get but $300 per annum for your writings,

you can with economy live upon that, though it would be a tight squeeze1 ".

In that year he was made editor of The American Magazine, at $500 a year, but he got little, as it soon became bankrupt.

XIII

Until "The Scarlet Letter was written his external circumstances had grown more and more unpromising, but from that time forward his means were sufficient for comfortable living. His three great novels were successful in America, and were reprinted in England. For the "Blithedale Romance" he received from England $1,000 for advance sheets. For the essays on English subjects afterwards collected under the title "Our Old Home" the Atlantic Monthly paid him $200 each. Perhaps his appointment to the consulate at Liverpool was not altogether an advantage, for the next six years produced only his manuscript volumes of English, French, and Italian journals. But this consulate was considered second in dignity only to the embassy in London, and produced an income of some $10,000.

In December, 1855, he wrote:

A Remarkably Handsome Man 209

I have now got enough to live upon at home with comfortable economy, and may besides reckon upon a considerable income from literature, so that it does not seem worth while to waste a great deal more time in this consular drudgery1.

But he unadvisedly lent a friend a large sum of money which was never repaid, and thus in his latter years he felt the stress of need.

had a long, curving wave in it, approached blackness in color. His head was large and grandly developed. His eye-brows were

dark and heavy, with a superb arch and

He weighed on his 40th birthday 178 pounds 1.