well, and early in 1839 entertained an offer from Baron Duquesne, a rich
and handsome young Frenchman. They kept this from John, fearing he would
break down at the news, so fully did they recognise the importance of
the affair. They even threw other girls in his way. It was not
difficult, for by now he had made some mark in magazine literature, and
was a steady, rising young man, with considerable expectations. But he
could not think of any other girl.

In February or March, 1839, Mr. Domecq died. The Maisons came to
England, and the marriage was proposed. Adèle stayed at Chelmsford until
September, when he wrote the long poem of "Farewell," dated the eve of
their last meeting and parting.

At twenty young men do not die of love; but I find that a fortnight
after writing this he was taken seriously ill. During the winter of
1839-40 the negotiations for the marriage in Paris went on. It took
place in March. They kept the news from him as long as they could, for
he was in the schools next Easter term, and Mr. Brown (his college
tutor) had seemed to hope he would get a First, so his mother wrote to
her husband. In May he was pronounced consumptive, and had to give up
Oxford, and all hope of the distinction for which he had laboured, and
with that any plans that might have been entertained for his distinction
in the Church. And his parents' letters of the period put it beyond a
doubt that this first great calamity of his life was the direct
consequence of that unfortunate matchmaking.

For nearly two years he was dragged about from place to place, and from
doctor to doctor, in search of health. Thanks partly to wise treatment,
more to new faces, and most to a plucky determination to employ himself
usefully with his pen and his pencil, he gradually freed himself from