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m



GEORGE ELIOT. B5

more severa She writes on May 6th ; " \Vt have just
returned from Dorking, whither I went a forlriighl ago to
have sohtude. . . . The weather was severely cold for
several days of my stay, and I was often ailing. That
has been the way with me for a month and mote, and in
consequence I am backward with my July number of
'Romola,' the last part but one." To this Mr. Cross
adds; "I remember my wife telling me, at Willey, how
cruelly she had sufTored at Dorking from working under
a leaden weight at this time. The writing of ' Rotnola '—
ploughed into her more than any of her other books.
She told me she could put her finger on it as ni.irking a
well-defined transition in her life. In her own words, ' I
began it a young woman, — I finished it an old woman.' "
Part xiii. was eventually completed and Tito killed, on
May i6lh, in great excitement. The final stroke to the
novel was eventually put on June gth. The manuscript,
exquisitely written, with scarcely an erasure, after the
date of the commencement and completion, bears this
inscription: "To the Husband whose perfect love has'
been the best source of her insight and strength, this
manuscript is given by his devoted wife, the writer."

peculiarity of " Romola," as distinguished from
ler liislorical noveis, that the object is, not so much to
isent a living picture of a particular period in history,
to create an historical background for characters
rhose interest hes in their intense moral significance.
