413 



ducing results implying close application and labor, but 

 without any apparent expense of time or means. His step 

 \vas so leisurely, his manner so composed, there was always 

 such total absence of weariness in all he said and did, that 

 it was impossible to believe he was so diligent a worker. 



But this composure, this reticence, this leisurely air, were 

 all imposed upon his manner by his regal will. He was 

 under the most supreme self-control. It was so absolute as 

 to deprive him of spontaneity and enthusiasm. In social 

 intercourse he was like two persons: the one conversed with 

 you pleasantly upon every topic, the other watched you 

 from behind that pleasant talk, like a sentinel. The delicate 

 child, left much to himself by his parents, naturally grew 

 wayward and imperious. But the man of shrewd common 

 sense, with his way to make in the world, saw clearly that 

 that waywardness must be sternly subjugated. It was so, 

 and at the usual expense. What the friend of Downing most 

 desired in him w^as a frank and unreserved flow' of feeling, 

 which should drown out that curious, critical self-conscious- 

 ness. He felt this want as much as any one, and often play- 

 fully endeavored to supply it. It doubtless arose, in great 

 part, from too fine a nervous organization. Under the mask 

 of the finished man of the world he concealed the most 

 feminine feelings, which often expressed themselves with 

 pathetic intensity to the only one in whom he unreservedly 

 confided. 



This critical reserve behind the cordial manner invested 

 his whole character with mystery. The long dark hair, the 

 firm dark eyes, the slightly defiant brow, the Spanish mien, 

 that welcomed us that May morning, seemed to me always 

 afterward, the symbols of his character. A cloud wrapped 

 his inner life. Motives, and the deeper feelings, were lost 

 to view in that obscurity. It seemed that within this cloud 

 there might be desperate struggles, like the battle of the 

 Huns and Romans, invisible in the air, but of which no token 

 escaped into the experience of his friends. He confronted 

 circumstances with the same composed and indomitable 

 resolution, and it was not possible to tell whether he were 



