CONCLUSION BY THE EDITOR
* i.e., Godwin
[Publisher's note].
VERY FEW hints exist respecting the plan of the remainder of the work. I
find only two detached sentences, and some scattered heads for the continuation
of the story. I transcribe the whole.
I. "Darnford's letters were affectionate;
but circumstances occasioned delays, and the miscarriage of some letters
rendered the reception of wished-for answers doubtful: his return was necessary
to calm Maria's mind."
II. "As Darnford had informed her that his
business was settled, his delaying to return seemed extraordinary; but love to
excess, excludes fear or suspicion."
The scattered heads for the continuation of the story,
are as follow. *
* To understand these minutes, it is necessary the reader should consider
each of them as setting out from the same point in the story, viz. the point to
which it is brought down in the preceding chapter. [Godwin's note]
I. "Trial for adultery--Maria defends herself--A separation from bed
and board is the consequence--Her fortune is thrown into chancery—Darnford obtains a part of his property--Maria goes into
the country."
II. "A prosecution for adultery commenced--Trial--Darnford
sets out for France--Letters--Once more pregnant--He returns—Mysterious behaviour--Visit--Expectation--Discovery--Interview--Consequence."
III. "Sued by her husband--Damages awarded to him--Separation from bed
and board--Darnford goes abroad--Maria into the
country--Provides for her father--Is shunned--Returns to London--Expects to see
her lover—The rack of expectation--Finds herself again with child--Delighted—A
discovery--A visit--A miscarriage--Conclusion."
IV. "Divorced by her husband--Her lover
unfaithful--Pregnancy--Miscarriage--Suicide."
"She swallowed the laudanum; her soul was calm--the tempest had
subsided--and nothing remained but an eager longing to forget herself--to fly
from the anguish she endured to escape from thought--from this hell of
disappointment.
"Still her eyes closed not--one remembrance with frightful velocity
followed another--All the incidents of her life were in arms, embodied to
assail her, and prevent her sinking into the sleep of death.—Her murdered child
again appeared to her, mourning for the babe of which she was the tomb.--'And
could it have a nobler?--Surely it is better to die with me, than to enter on
life without a mother's care!—I cannot live!--but could I have deserted my
child the moment it was born?--thrown it on the troubled wave of life, without
a hand to support it?'--She looked up: 'What have I not suffered!--may I find a
father where I am going!--Her head turned; a stupor ensued; a faintness--'Have
a little patience,' said Maria, holding her swimming head (she thought of her
mother), 'this cannot last long; and what is a little bodily pain to the pangs
I have endured?'
"A new vision swam before her. Jemima seemed to enter--leading a
little creature, that, with tottering footsteps,
approached the bed. The voice of Jemima sounding as at a distance, called
her--she tried to listen, to speak, to look!
"'Behold your child!' exclaimed Jemima. Maria started off the bed, and
fainted.--Violent vomiting followed.
"When she was restored to life, Jemima addressed her with great
solemnity: '----- led me to suspect, that your husband and brother had deceived
you, and secreted the child. I would not torment you with doubtful hopes, and I
left you (at a fatal moment) to search for the child!--I snatched her from
misery--and (now she is alive again) would you leave her alone in the world, to
endure what I have endured?'
"Maria gazed wildly at her, her whole frame was convulsed with
emotion; when the child, whom Jemima had been tutoring all
the journey, uttered the word 'Mamma!' She caught her to her bosom, and
burst into a passion of tears--then, resting the child gently on the bed, as if
afraid of killing it,--she put her hand to her eyes, to conceal as it were the
agonizing struggle of her soul. She remained silent for five minutes, crossing
her arms over her bosom, and reclining her head,--then exclaimed: 'The conflict is over!--I will live for my child!'"
A few readers perhaps, in looking over these hints, will wonder how it
could have been practicable, without tediousness, or remitting in any degree
the interest of the story, to have filled, from these slight sketches, a number
of pages, more considerable than those which have been already presented. But,
in reality, these hints, simple as they are, are pregnant with passion and
distress. It is the refuge of barren authors only, to crowd their fictions with
so great a number of events, as to suffer no one of them to sink into the
reader's mind. It is the province of true genius to develop events, to discover
their capabilities, to ascertain the different passions and sentiments with
which they are fraught, and to diversify them with incidents,
that give reality to the picture, and take a hold upon the mind of a
reader of taste, from which they can never be loosened. It was particularly the
design of the author, in the present instance, to make her story subordinate to
a great moral purpose, that "of exhibiting the misery and oppression,
peculiar to women, that arise out of the partial laws and customs of
society.--This view restrained her fancy."* It was necessary for her, to
place in a striking point of view, evils that are too frequently overlooked,
and to drag into light those details of oppression, of which the grosser and
more insensible part of mankind make little account.
* See author's preface.
[Godwin's note]
THE END.