The greater the love,
the greater the success; the nobler the idea of each, the more
durable, the more beautiful the effect. Meanwhile the blindness of
each to the other's defects enables the transformation to proceed
[unobserved,] so that when the veil is withdrawn (if it ever is,
and this I do not know) neither knows that any change has occurred
in the person whom they loved. Do not fear, therefore. I do not
tell you that your friend will not change, but as I am sure that
her choice cannot be that of a man with a base ideal, so I am sure
the change will be a safe and a good one. Do not fear that
anything you love will vanish, he must love it too.'
Among other introductions in London, Fleeming had presented a
letter from Mrs. Gaskell to the Alfred Austins. This was a family
certain to interest a thoughtful young man. Alfred, the youngest
and least known of the Austins, had been a beautiful golden-haired
child, petted and kept out of the way of both sport and study by a
partial mother. Bred an attorney, he had (like both his brothers)
changed his way of life, and was called to the bar when past
thirty.
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