A Young Duchess and an Old Friend by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 334 in the eleventh instalment (October 1855). Steel-engraving. 10.1 cm high by 12.3 cm wide (4 by 5 inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XXXII, "A Young Duchess and an Old Friend." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Kate renews her emotional attachment to the young Duchess
“Madame la Duchesse will, I'm sure, excuse my absence; she has doubtless many things she would like to say to her friend alone,” said Lady Dorothea, rising and courtesying formally; and the young Duchess returned the salutation with equal courtesy and respect.
“My dear, dear Kate,” cried she, throwing her arms around her as the door closed after her Ladyship, “how I have longed for this moment, to tell you ten thousand things about myself and hear from you as many more! And first, dearest, are you happy? for you look more serious, more thoughtful than you used, — and paler, too.”
“Am I so?” asked Kate, faintly.
“Yes. When you're not speaking, your brows grow stern and your lips compressed. Your features have not that dear repose, as Giorgevo used to call it. Poor fellow! how much in love he was, and you 've never asked for him!”
“I never thought of him!” said she, with a smile.
“Nor of Florian, Kate!”
“Nor even of him.”
“And yet that poor fellow was really in love, — nay, don't laugh, Kate, I know it. He gave up his career, everything he had in life, — he was a Secretary of Legation, with good prospects,—all to win your favor, becoming a 'Carbonaro,' or a 'Montagnard,' or something or other that swears to annihilate all kings and extirpate monarchy.”
“And after that?” asked Kate, with more of interest.
“After that, ma chère, they sent him to the galleys; I forget exactly where, but I think it was in Sicily. And then there was that Hungarian Count Nemescz, that wanted to kill somebody who picked up your bouquet out of the Grand Canal at Venice.”
“And whom, strangely enough, I met and made acquaintance with in Ireland. His name is Massingbred.” [Chapter XXXII, "A Young Duchess and an Old Friend," pp. 334-335]
Commentary: The Young Duchess will introduce Lady Dorothea to Parisian Society
At the moment captured in the illustration, Lady Dorothea icily exits her Paris salon in order to leave her secretary (Kate Henderson) alone with their guest (in fact, Kate's former employer and sworn friend), the young Duchesse de Mirecourt. Kate, accepting the post of governess in the wilds of Galway, had broken off the correspondence for fear that she would bore his aristocratic Parisian friend with accounts of dreary provincial life. But the young French aristocrat had seen her former governess and companion in street, and has tracked her down. In consequence, "her Ladyship," Kate's present employer, will suddenly be admitted to one of three chief houses of Parisian society from which, for these past seven weeks, she has been excluded. By her elevated nose Phiz suggests Lady Dorothea's hauteur as she passes out of the drawing-room, her middle-aged gauntness and stiff demeanour in sharp contrast to the warm intimacy of the attractive young women seated close together on the divan, the young Duchesse to the right, still in her shawl, and Kate to the left.
Although Lever renders the meeting as quite plausible as the Duchesse saw Karte on the sidewalk as she was passing in her carriage, their discussing up-and-coming Member of Parliament Jack Massingbred as "all the rage here" (335) is rather far-fetched.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. In two volumes. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Created 30 September 2022