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very clear and definite picture of the young Margaret, and of his interest in her.

By far the cleverest and brightest, however, an ex-pupil of Irving’s and genealogically and otherwise (being poorish, proud, and well bred) rather a kind of alien in the place, I did at last make acquaintance with (at Irving’s first, I think though she rarely came thither); some acquaintance; and it might easily have been more, had she, and her Aunt, and our economic and other circumstances liked! She was of the fair complexioned, softly elegant, softly grave, witty and comely type and had a good deal of gracefulness, intelligence, and other talent. . . . She was of the Aberdeenshire Gordons, a far—off Huntly I doubt not, “Margaret Gordon,” born I think in New Brunswick where her father probably in some official post, had died young and poor—her accent was prettily English, and her voice very fine :—an aunt (widow in Fife, childless, with limited resources but of frugal, cultivated turn; a lean, proud, elderly dame, once a ”Miss Gordon” herself, sang Scots songs beautifully and talked shrewd Aberdeenish in accent and otherwise) had adopted her and brought her hither over seas, and here as Irving’s ex-pupil, she now cheery though with dim outlooks, was.

Carlyle’s prospects did not suit the guardian aunt, so he withdrew, but not Without some words of advice from the fair Margaret:

Still, permit me to entreat you not to desert the path Nature has so evidently marked you should walk in. It is true, it is full of rugged obstacles, interspersed with little to charm the sense; yet these present a struggle which is fitted only for minds such as yours to overcome. The difficulties of the ascent are great, but how glorious the summit! Keep your eyes fixed on the end of your journey, and you will begin to forget the weariness of the way.