The
event is a coincidence, to say the least, and is scarcely less an
operation than the transfusion of blood by which Griffith Gaunt and his
wife are preserved to a long life of happiness. But this part of the
work is full of wonders. The cruel enchantments are all dissolved by
more potent preternatural agencies, and a superhuman prosperity dwells
alike with the just and the unjust,--Mrs. Ryder excepted, who will
probably go to the Devil as some slight compensation for the loss of
Griffith Gaunt.
But if the conclusion of the fiction is weak, how great it is in every
other part! The management of the plot was so masterly, that the story
proceeded without a pause or an improbability until the long fast of a
month falling between the feasts of its publication became almost
insupportable. It was a plot that grew naturally out of the characters,
for humanity is prolific of events, and these characters are all human
beings. They are not in the least anachronistic. They act and speak a
great deal in the coarse fashion of the good old times. Griffith Gaunt
is half tipsy when Kate plights her troth to him; and he is drunk upon
an occasion not less solemn and interesting. They are of an age that was
very gallant and brutal, that wore gold-lace upon its coat, and ever so
much profanity upon its speech; and Mr.
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