r. I shall leave these notes and
verbal criticisms to speak for themselves, after merely explaining that
they are written on separate bits of paper, each note having a numerical
reference to that page of the MS. in which occurs the passage commented
on.

"Besides the words 'riant' and 'Euphrosyne,' the sentence is senseless.
'A sweet sadness' capable of inspiring 'a more _grave joy_'--than
what?--than demonstrations of _mirth_? Odd if it had not been. I had
once a _wry aunt_, which may make me dislike the phrase.

"'Pleasurable:'--no word is good that is awkward to spell. (Query.)
Welcome or Joyous.

"'_Steady self-possession_ rather than _undaunted courage_,' etc. The
two things are not opposed enough. You mean, rather than rash fire of
valour in action.

"'Looking like a heifer,' I fear wont do in prose. (Qy.) 'Like to some
spotless heifer,'--or,'that you might have compared her to some spotless
heifer,' etc.--or 'Like to some sacrificial heifer of old.' I should
prefer, 'garlanded with flowers as for a sacrifice '--and cut the cow
altogether.

"(Say) 'Like the muttering of some strange spell,'--omitting the
demon,--they are _subject_ to spells, they don't use them.

"'Feud' here (and before and after) is wrong. (Say) old malice, or,
difference. _Feud_ is of clans. It might be applied to family quarrels,
but is quite improper to individuals falling out.

"'Apathetic.' Vile word.

"'Mechanically,' faugh!--insensibly--involuntarily--in-any-thing-ly but
mechanically.

"Calianax's character should be somewhere briefly _drawn_, not left to
be dramatically inferred.

"'Surprised and almost vexed while it troubled her.' (Awkward.) Better,
'in a way that while it deeply troubled her, could not but surprise and
vex her to think it should be a source of trouble at all.'

"'Reaction' is vile slang. 'Physical'--vile word.

"Decidedly, Dorigen should simply propose to him to remove the rocks as
_ugly_ or _dangerous_, not as affecting her with fears for her husband.
The idea of her husband should be excluded from a promise which is meant
to be _frank_ upon impossible conditions. She cannot promise in one
breath infidelity to him, and make the conditions a good to him. Her
reason for hating the rocks is good, but not to be expressed here.

"Insert after 'to whatever consequences it might lead,'--'Neither had
Arviragus been disposed to interpose a husband's authority to prevent
the execution of this rash vow, was he