Mrs. Ward's literary power is sometimes seen at its
best (it is a proof of her high cultivation of this power that so it
should be) in the analysis of minor characters, both male and female.
Richard Leyburn, deceased before the story begins, but warm in the
memory of the few who had known him, above all of his great-souled
daughter Catherine, strikes us, with his religious mysticism, as
being in this way one of the best things in the book:--
"Poor Richard Leyburn! Yet where had the defeat lain?
"'Was he happy in his school life?' Robert asked gently. 'Was
teaching what he liked?'
[59] "'Oh! yes, only--' and then added hurriedly, as though drawn on
in spite of herself by the grave sympathy of his look, 'I never knew
anybody so good who thought himself of so little account. He always
believed that he had missed everything, wasted everything, and that
anybody else would have made infinitely more out of his life. He vas
always blaming, scourging himself. And all the time he was the
noblest, purest, most devoted--'
"She stopped. Her voice had passed beyond her control. Elsmere was
startled by the feeling she showed. Evidently he had touched one of
the few sore places in this pure heart.
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