It is a period of readjustment and sacrifice.
Redundant and interfering growths of character must be pruned away, and
yet if the lopping process is carried too far, character itself must
suffer, the juices of its life and power, individuality and will, are
wasted.
The Queen always contended that it was the Prince who made all the
sacrifices--unselfishly adjusting his life and character to suit hers,
and her position--yet not long after her marriage she records the fact
that she was beginning to sympathize with him in his peculiar tastes,
particularly in his love for a quiet country life. She says: "I told
Albert that formerly I was too happy to go to London, and wretched to
leave it; and now since the blessed hour of my marriage, and still more
since the summer, I dislike and am unhappy to leave the country, and
could be content and happy never to go to town. This pleased him."
I am afraid that there are those of Her Majesty's subjects who bless not
the memory of "Albert the Good," for this metamorphose of their once gay
and thoughtless, ball-giving, riding, driving, play-going Queen. These
malcontents are Londoners proper, mostly tradesmen, newspaper men,
milliners, and Hyde Park idlers.
Pages:
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163