The Lost Stradivarius | Page 6

subject of this Gagliarda is a
superior composition to the rest of it, for it is only during the first
sixteen bars that the vision of bygone revelry presents itself to me.
With the last note of the sixteenth bar a veil is drawn suddenly across
the scene, and with a sense almost of some catastrophe it vanishes. This
I attribute to the fact that the second subject must be inferior in
conception to the first, and by some sense of incongruity destroys the
fabric which the fascination of the preceding one built up."
My brother, though he had listened with interest to what Mr. Gaskell
had said, did not reply, and the subject was allowed to drop.
CHAPTER III
It was in the same summer of 1842, and near the middle of June, that
my brother John wrote inviting me to come to Oxford for the
Commemoration festivities. I had been spending some weeks with Mrs.
Temple, a distant cousin of ours, at their house of Royston in
Derbyshire, and John was desirous that Mrs. Temple should come up to
Oxford and chaperone her daughter Constance and myself at the balls

and various other entertainments which take place at the close of the
summer term. Owing to Royston being some two hundred miles from
Worth Maltravers, our families had hitherto seen little of one another,
but during my present visit I had learned to love Mrs. Temple, a lady of
singular sweetness of disposition, and had contracted a devoted
attachment to her daughter Constance. Constance Temple was then
eighteen years of age, and to great beauty united such mental graces
and excellent traits of character as must ever appear to reasoning
persons more enduringly valuable than even the highest personal
attractions. She was well read and witty, and had been trained in those
principles of true religion which she afterwards followed with devoted
consistency in the self-sacrifice and resigned piety of her too short life.
In person, I may remind you, my dear Edward, since death removed her
ere you were of years to appreciate either her appearance or her
qualities, she was tall, with a somewhat long and oval face, with brown
hair and eyes.
Mrs. Temple readily accepted Sir John Maltravers' invitation. She had
never seen Oxford herself, and was pleased to afford us the pleasure of
so delightful an excursion. John had secured convenient rooms for us
above the shop of a well-known printseller in High Street, and we
arrived in Oxford on Friday evening, June 18, 1842. I shall not dilate to
you on the various Commemoration festivities, which have probably
altered little since those days, and with which you are familiar. Suffice
it to say that my brother had secured us admission to every
entertainment, and that we enjoyed our visit as only youth with its keen
sensibilities and uncloyed pleasures can. I could not help observing that
John was very much struck by the attractions of Miss Constance
Temple, and that she for her part, while exhibiting no unbecoming
forwardness, certainly betrayed no aversion to him. I was greatly
pleased both with my own powers of observation which had enabled
me to discover so important a fact, and also with the circumstance itself.
To a romantic girl of nineteen it appeared high time that a brother of
twenty-two should be at least preparing some matrimonial project; and
my friend was so good and beautiful that it seemed impossible that I
should ever obtain a more lovable sister or my brother a better wife.
Mrs. Temple could not refuse her sanction to such a scheme; for while

their mental qualities seemed eminently compatible, John was in his
own right master of Worth Maltravers, and her daughter sole heiress of
the Royston estates.
The Commemoration festivities terminated on Wednesday night with a
grand ball at the Music-Room in Holywell Street. This was given by a
Lodge of University Freemasons, and John was there with Mr.
Gaskell--whose acquaintance we had made with much
gratification--both wearing blue silk scarves and small white aprons.
They introduced us to many other of their friends similarly adorned,
and these important and mysterious insignia sat not amiss with their
youthful figures and boyish faces. After a long and pleasurable
programme, it was decided that we should prolong our visit till the next
evening, leaving Oxford at half-past ten o'clock at night and driving to
Didcot, there to join the mail for the west. We rose late the next
morning and spent the day rambling among the old colleges and
gardens of the most beautiful of English cities. At seven o'clock we
dined together for the last time at our lodgings in High Street, and my
brother proposed that before parting we should enjoy the fine evening
in the gardens of St. John's College.