of a husband; one pities her in the poverty of her father's house,
in the famous battle over Daffy's Elixir, in the separation from the
younger George. You begin to wish some great joy to come to her:
it does not come unalloyed; you know that Dobbin had bad quarters of
an hour with this lady, and had to disguise a little of his
tenderness for his own daughter. Yes, Emmy is more complex than she
seems, and perhaps it needed three ladies to contribute the various
elements of her person and her character. One of them, the jealous
one, lent a touch to Helen Pendennis, to Laura, to Lady Castlewood.
Probably this may be the reason why some persons dislike Thackeray
so. His very best women are not angels. {3} Are the very best women
angels? It is a pious opinion--that borders on heresy.

When the Letters began to be written, in 1847, Thackeray had his
worst years, in a worldly sense, behind him. They were past: the
times when he wrote in Galignani for ten francs a day. Has any
literary ghoul disinterred his old ten-franc articles in Galignani?
The time of "Barry Lyndon," too, was over. He says nothing of that
masterpiece, and only a word about "The Great Hoggarty Diamond." "I
have been re-reading it. Upon my word and honour, if it doesn't
make you cry, I shall have a mean opinion of you. It was written at
a time of great affliction, when my heart was very soft and humble.
Amen. Ich habe auch viel geliebt." Of "Pendennis," as it goes on,
he writes that it is "awfully stupid," which has not been the
verdict of the ages. He picks up materials as he passes. He dines
with some officers, and perhaps he stations them at Chatteris. He
meets Miss G-, and her converse suggests a love passage between Pen
and Blanche. Why did he dislike fair women so? It runs all through
his novels. Becky is fair. Blanche is fair. Outside the old
yellow covers of "Pendennis," you see the blonde mermaid, "amusing,