Sullivan was but a youth, a poor and struggling music-master.
And, very naturally again, Mrs. Scott Russell, who could not
be expected to know what magic baton the young maestro
carried in his knapsack, thought her brilliant daughter might
do better. The music lessons were put a stop to, and
correspondence between the lovers was prohibited.
Once a week or so, either the young lady or the young
gentleman would, quite unexpectedly, pay us a visit about tea
or luncheon time. And, by the strangest coincidence, the
other would be sure to drop in while the one was there. This
went on for a year or two. But destiny forbade the banns.
In spite of the large fortune acquired by Mr. Scott Russell -
he was the builder of the 'Great Eastern' as well as the
Crystal Palace - ill-advised or unsuccessful ventures robbed
him of his well-earned wealth. His beautiful place at
Sydenham had to be sold; and the marriage of Miss Rachel with
young Arthur Sullivan was abandoned. She ultimately married
an Indian official.
Her story may here be told to the end. Some years later she
returned to England to bring her two children home for their
education, going back to India without them, as Indian
mothers have to do. The day before she sailed, she called to
take leave of us in London. She was terribly depressed, but
fought bravely with her trial. She never broke down, but
shunted the subject, talking and laughing with flashes of her
old vivacity, about music, books, friends, and 'dear old
dirty London,' as she called it. When she left, I opened the
street-door for her, and with both her hands in mine, bade
her 'Farewell.' Then the tears fell, and her parting words
were: 'I am leaving England never to see it again.' She was
seized with cholera the night she reached Bombay, and died
the following day.
To return to her father, the eminent engineer. He was
distinctly a man of genius, and what is called 'a character.'
He was always in the clouds - not in the vapour of his
engine-rooms, nor busy inventing machines for extracting
sunbeams from cucumbers, but musing on metaphysical problems
and abstract speculations about the universe generally. In
other respects a perfectly simple-minded man.
It was in his palmy days that he invited me to run down to
Sheerness with him, and go over the 'Great Eastern' before
she left with the Atlantic cable. This was in 1865. The
largest ship in the world, and the first Atlantic cable, were
both objects of the greatest interest. The builder did not
know the captain - Anderson - nor did the captain know the
builder. But clearly, each would be glad to meet the other.
As the leviathan was to leave in a couple of days, everything
on board her was in the wildest confusion.
