Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/373



speech; she will open a Flower Show; or she will lecture a huge throng in a public building on questions of the day. Yet she does these things at some sacrifice, too, for wondrously calm as she may be at the critical moment of action, her nerves are sorely shaken both before and afterwards, She taxes her memory greatly also. It may perhaps scarcely be credited that the address she delivered at Glasgow, which occupied an hour and a half, was learned off by heart and spoken without a slip.
 * tribute prizes to children and make a felicitous

But it is not our intention to reveal further of her private life; we know full well it would be displeasing to herself if we did so, and an unwarrantable breach of confidence. She is no notoriety-hunter. She does not cultivate the personal paragraph, and would no more tolerate the prying busybody than she does the camera-fiend who waylays her in the hope of obtaining snapshots. Why, she asks, should the veil be lifted merely to satisfy a vulgar and idle curiosity? Her private life is as sacred as that of any other person, and it is merely pandering to a depraved modern taste to lay bare "the poet's house," as Browning put it.

Outside should suffice for evidence: And whoso desires to penetrate Deeper, must dive by the spirit-sense.

One remark only need be added: Miss Corelli has been the victim of much misunderstanding in the past, of some injustice, and—alas, that it should have to be said—of deliberate malevolence. Those who are privileged to enjoy her friendship best know her admirable qualities, and entertain none but the kindest sentiments towards her and the best