Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 1 February 1880
Title
Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 1 February 1880
Title
Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 1 February 1880
Sender
Edith Simcox
Recipient
U
Date(s)
- 1880-02-01
Place
London
Letter Content
Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 1 February 1880
MS: Bodleian.
Sunday 1 February 1880
February 1. I had meant to call last Friday, but by ill luck forgot a school engagement that had determined me and went instead on Thursday. Young Johnny and Eleanor Cross were there when I arrived and outstayed me. I listened while the latter talked Music, and looked at her, 531 she was well and beautiful. She had been to the Old Masters and the Grosvenor 532 (with whom?) -- she said "we" -- I don't know why I should have been surprised. I had thought she would never go to the Saturday concerts again, perhaps she will. I suppose I should have been pleased enough if she had proposed to go to the Grosvenor with me -- but it was probably the Burne Jones, as she spoke of his reluctance to sell his drawings. They being there I could not ask about the girl. I think perhaps what wearies her least is the ardour of a single-minded youth -- with which she has some natural sympathy and at all events can feel a dramatic interest. I was fool enough to come away in tears again, shall I never reach the end of this disappointed covetousness? It is here I can always silence the craving of my own soul by thinking of her solitude but she has a spring of vitality within which makes her winter less barren than my prime. She told little Marks 533 that she was doing conic sections every morning because "she didn't want to lose the power of learning" . . . It is something known, lived through and unalterable that my life has flung itself at her feet -- and not been picked up -- only told to rise and make itself a serviceable place elsewhere -- So be it -- so it is.
MS: Bodleian.
Sunday 1 February 1880
February 1. I had meant to call last Friday, but by ill luck forgot a school engagement that had determined me and went instead on Thursday. Young Johnny and Eleanor Cross were there when I arrived and outstayed me. I listened while the latter talked Music, and looked at her, 531 she was well and beautiful. She had been to the Old Masters and the Grosvenor 532 (with whom?) -- she said "we" -- I don't know why I should have been surprised. I had thought she would never go to the Saturday concerts again, perhaps she will. I suppose I should have been pleased enough if she had proposed to go to the Grosvenor with me -- but it was probably the Burne Jones, as she spoke of his reluctance to sell his drawings. They being there I could not ask about the girl. I think perhaps what wearies her least is the ardour of a single-minded youth -- with which she has some natural sympathy and at all events can feel a dramatic interest. I was fool enough to come away in tears again, shall I never reach the end of this disappointed covetousness? It is here I can always silence the craving of my own soul by thinking of her solitude but she has a spring of vitality within which makes her winter less barren than my prime. She told little Marks 533 that she was doing conic sections every morning because "she didn't want to lose the power of learning" . . . It is something known, lived through and unalterable that my life has flung itself at her feet -- and not been picked up -- only told to rise and make itself a serviceable place elsewhere -- So be it -- so it is.
Citation
Edith Simcox, Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 1 February 1880, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91766