Employees' Emotional Intelligence, Motivation & Productivity, and Organizational Excellence: A Future Trend in HRD 1st Edition Gagari Chakrabarti
Employees' Emotional Intelligence, Motivation & Productivity, and Organizational Excellence: A Future Trend in HRD 1st Edition Gagari Chakrabarti
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EMPLOYEES’ EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE, MOTIVATION
& PRODUCTIVITY, AND
ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Gagari Chakrabarti
Tapas Chatterjea
Employees’ Emotional Intelligence, Motivation
& Productivity, and Organizational Excellence
Gagari Chakrabarti · Tapas Chatterjea
Employees’
Emotional
Intelligence,
Motivation &
Productivity, and
Organizational
Excellence
A Future Trend in HRD
Gagari Chakrabarti Tapas Chatterjea
Department of Economics Cardio-vascular, Geriatric, Internal
Presidency University and Critical Care Medicine; Diabetology
Kolkata and Thyroidology, Mental Health-Stress
West Bengal, India and Institutional Management
Kolkata
West Bengal, India
v
vi Foreword
ix
x Preface
1 Prologue 1
xi
List of Graphs
xiii
xiv List of Graphs
xxiii
xxiv List of Tables
“Life is indeed colourful. We can feel in the pink one day, with our bank balances
comfortably in the black, and the grass seemingly no greener on the other side of the
fence. Then out of the blue, something tiresome happens that makes us see red, turn
ashen white, even purple with rage. Maybe controlling our varying emotions is just
‘colour managemen’ by another name.”
—Alex Morritt, Impromptu Scribe
accept the notion of intelligence as all about the speed of mental pro-
cessing (Berry 1984; Sternberg and Kaufman 1998; Sternberg et al.
1981). Even the Western theorists, who took intelligence to be strongly
cognitive, could not deny the importance of depth along with the speed
of mental processing in making the learning process complete and effec-
tive (Craik and Lockhart 1972). The oriental conception of intelligence
added non-cognitive flavours to the concept of intelligence ever since
the days of Confucius (Yang and Sternberg 1997a). Unlike traditional
western conception of the notion, they emphasized freedom from con-
ventional line of thinking and a complete understanding of true self and
surroundings as integral part of one’s learning process: a notion simi-
lar to what later came to be known as Emotional Intelligence. Even the
present-day Taiwanese philosophy of intelligence encompasses inter
and intrapersonal intelligences, intellectual self assertion and self efface-
ment along with the traditional notion of cognitive intelligence (Yang
and Sternberg 1997b). Chen and Chen (1988) found similar results
for the Chinese economy. The Buddhist and the Hindu philosophers
have always blended emotional aspects with the traditional concepts of
intellect (Das 1994). A large body of literature has grown to converse
about the notion of intelligence in the African countries where intel-
ligence includes the ability to foster congruent inter and intra-group
relationships (Ruzgis and Grigorenko 1994). In countries like Zambia,
Zimbabwe and Kenya intellect is conceived to include social respon-
sibility and other favourable humane and positive emotional traits
(Serpell 1974; Super and Harkness 1986; Dasen 1984). Despite of the
presence of some degree of dissimilarity across the tribes, their notion
of intelligence incorporates some social aspects in one sense or other
(Wober 1974; Harkness and Super 1983; Putnam and Kilbride 1980;
Durojaiye 1993).
Ever since the eighteenth century, psychologists considered three
separate segments of human mind (Hilgard 1980). The first sphere of
cognitive excellence is concerned with the human-intellect; that is, with
the skills to recognize, distinguish, memorize, analyze and to think logi-
cally. The second sphere considers affect that includes emotions, moods,
humane feelings and considerations. The third aspect or motivation
refers to the natural or acquired human desire to pursue a definite goal.
4 G. Chakrabarti and T. Chatterjea
Such an analysis would help explain the urge of any organization, aspir-
ant of success, to look for the non-cognitive skills (along with the pure
cognitive efficiencies) in potential employee and the need to design
incentive mechanism and/or to frame policies to help existing employ-
ees develop such skills.
Accordingly, after this introductory chapter the study is divided into
three more.
Chapter 2 describes the evolution of the theories of Emotional
Intelligence starting from that of Darwin. It recapitulates different
1 Prologue
7
Note
1 Excerpt from the essay ‘Learning in War-Time’ from the book, The
Weight of Glory.
References
Berry, J. W. (1984). Toward a universal psychology of cognitive competence.
International Journal of Psychology, 19, 335–361.
Chen, M. J., & Chen, H. C. (1988). Concepts of intelligence: A comparison
of Chinese graduates from Chinese and English schools in Hong Kong.
International Journal of Psychology, 223, 471–487.
Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework
for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11,
671–684.
Das, J. P. (1994). Assessment of cognitive processes. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Dasen, P. (1984). The cross-cultural study of intelligence: Piaget and the
Baoule. International Journal of Psychology, 19, 407–434.
Durojaiye, M. O. A. (1993). Indigenous psychology in Africa. In U. Kim &
J. W. Berry (Eds.), Indigenous psychologies: Research and experience in cultural
context (pp. 193–210). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (1983). The cultural construction of child devel-
opment: A framework for the socialization of affect. Ethos, 11, 221–231.
Hedlund, J., & Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Too many intelligences? Integrating
social, emotional, and practical intelligence. In R. Bar-On & J. Parker
(Eds.), The handbook of emotional intelligence: Theory, development, assess-
ment, and application at home, school, and in the workplace (pp. 136–167).
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hilgard, E. R. (1980). The trilogy of mind: Cognition, affection and conation.
Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 16(2), 107–117.
Matthews, G., Zeidner, M., & Roberts, R. D. (2002). Emotional intelligence:
Science and myth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mayer, J. D., & Mitchell, D. C. (1998). Intelligence as a subsystem of per-
sonality: From Spearman’s g to contemporary models of hot processing. In
W. Tomic & J. Kingma (Eds.), Advances in cognition and educational practice
(Vol. 5, pp. 43–75). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
1 Prologue
9
2.1 Introduction
The study of Emotional Intelligence dates back to the era of Charles
Darwin when he portrayed emotional expression to be essential for sur-
vival. With the passage of time, different schools of scientists came to
believe that standard cognitive intelligence does not always suffice as a
tool for explaining human behaviour, to analyze their success, and to
predict their failures. Rather, what should be emphasized more is a com-
bination of competencies that allows a person to be cognisant of, to
comprehend and to be able to control personal emotions; to recognize
and appreciate the emotions of fellow beings and use this acumen to
develop an environment that would make a system better functioning
by fostering success of all those who are part of it. Such competencies
that allow people to make their own way in a complex world by success-
fully dealing with people and the environment have come to be referred
to as Emotional Intelligence.
Historically, the analysis of intelligence was centred around person-
ality traits and particularly, on cognitive intelligence that led to the
development of Intelligence Quotient. Inclusion of emotional intel-
ligence in such analyses seemed to be difficult although the psycholo-
gists of the day recognized the theoretical presence of social intelligence
along with two other types of intelligence, namely, the verbal-proposi-
tional intelligence that includes stock of vocabulary, verbal communica-
tion skills, logical thinking and the proficiency in identifying similarities
or otherwise among objects; and the spatial performance intelligence or
the ability to assemble objects, and the skill to comprehend and con-
struct patterns. However, the social intelligence was perceived to be so
strongly associated with the two others that psychologists never felt the
urge to treat and analyse it as a special or even separate form of intel-
ligence. Hence, while analysing individual success stories and explain-
ing efficiencies in solving problems, scientists focused much on the
intellectual, logical, analytical, and rational abilities of the incumbents.
Success stories thus were all about how well one can acquire, organize
and implement new knowledge. Gradually, scientists came to concede
the presence of non-cognitive intelligence, or, precisely emotion, which
2 Intelligence? … Emotions? … or, the Emotional …
13
Studies conducted later on (Mandler 1984; Mayer and Salovey 1997) recog-
nized emotions as “potentially contributing to thought rather than disturbing
it … they prioritize cognition”. The basic point to start from is then to rec-
ognize that emotions provide information about the relationship with one’s
surroundings.
be tracked was too high and it failed to lend itself to correlation method
for empirical verification. Gardner (1983, 1995), in his thoery of mul-
tiple intelligence, too avoided the correlational approach and intended
to explain presence of muliple intelligences with cultural differences and
human brain structure. In empirical verification of the model, he found
all intelligences to be significantly interrelated. However, although the
theory is intuitively appealing and still has some acceptance among
the researchers, theorists including Gardner himself remained sceptical
about the empirical findings (Detterman 1982; Sternberg 1994). Apart
from such exceptions, the Emotional Intelligence models developed in
the twentieth century relied predominantly on the correlation method.
According to the Encyclopaedia of Applied Psychology (Spielberger
2004) there are currently three foremost approaches towards analy-
sis of Emotional Intelligence, namely, the Bar-On Model (1997), the
Goleman Model (1995) and the Mayer-Salovey Model (1997). This
study while focussing on these three would like to go for an academic
discussion of the trait based model of Emotional Intelligence intro-
duced by Konstantin Vasily Petrides in 2001.
The term Emotional Intelligence gained immense popularity after
Daniel Goleman came to publish his book Emotional Intelligence in
1995 where he posited emotional intelligence to be equally important
as IQ to explain one’s success in academic, professional, social, and
interpersonal aspects of life. According to him, emotional intelligence
is an array of skills and characteristics that can be taught and cultivated.
Goleman’s original model has now come to be considered as a mixed
model that combines what have subsequently been modelled sepa-
rately as ability EI and trait EI. The trait model “encompasses behav-
ioural dispositions and self perceived abilities and is measured through
self report” (Konstantin and Furnham 2001). The ability model as
developed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1997 focuses on the
individual’s ability to process emotional information and to use it to
navigate the social environment. Bar-On, on the other hand, offered a
model based within the context of personality theory, emphasizing the
co-dependence of the ability aspects of emotional intelligence with per-
sonality traits and their application to personal well-being. This is in
contrast to the Goleman’s model, developed in terms of performance,
2 Intelligence? … Emotions? … or, the Emotional …
17
where individual abilities and traits are integrated to gauge their impact
in each sphere of life (Goleman 2001).
The Bar-On model (1997) starts from a very basic premise by raising
a very basic question, namely, why do some people with a high IQ strug-
gle in life, while others with a moderate IQ succeed? With its emphasis
on non-cognitive intelligence, it has introduced a scientific and one of
the best normed measures of Emotional Intelligence that is adminis-
tered to over 42,000 individuals in thirty-six countries. This multifac-
eted measure with its multicultural applicability examines almost all the
aspects of emotional and social intelligence. While defining Emotional
Intelligence, the theory does not confuse it with IQ, aptitude, academic
achievement, vocational interest or personality. Rather, it has been
taken as the emotional, social, communicative, and relational abili-
ties of individuals to grasp their own as well as others’ wants and needs
so as to be able to cope with environmental demands and pressures.
As pointed out by Goleman, the most significant contribution of this
approach to the literature has been the effort to develop an Emotional
Quotient scale.
The Bar-On model involves 133 brief items answered on a five-point
scale from “Not true of me” to “True of me”. The EQ-i is suitable for
individuals who have attained an age of seventeen years of more and
it takes approximately 40 minutes to complete. The test involves few
scales namely, total EQ, five EQ Composite scales, fifteen EQ Content
Scales and four Validity scales. The model identifies the following com-
posite EQ scales with the associated content scales:
Using these factors, the Bar-On model calculates the EQ (EQ-i) for
each respondent and judges their ability to cope with the environmen-
tal demands. Assuming a normal distribution for the scores, with mean
100 and standard deviation of 15, any score in the range of 85–115 is
considered to be the average score. Any score greater (less) than 115
(85) is considered to be a high (low) score. Any respondent scoring in
the average range for a particular factor is considered to be functioning
efficiently in handling situations related to that factor. An above-average
score indicates the efficiency of the person in terms of the factor con-
cerned, while a low score identifies skills that necessitate improvement
for better functioning and higher probabilities of success. The Bar-On
test finds wide application in a variety of field including corporate, edu-
cational institutions, clinical, medical, and academics.
The model was estimated for near about four thousand respond-
ents from the United States and Canada. Seventy-nine percent of the
20 G. Chakrabarti and T. Chatterjea
respondents were white and under the age of 30 years, with equal rep-
resentation of males and females (Bar-On 1997, 2002). Testing the
impact of age, gender and ethnicity revealed that the older groups
scored significantly higher than the younger groups on most of the
EQ-i scales; and respondents in their late 40s obtained the high-
est mean scores. An increase in emotional-social intelligence with age
is also observed in children (Bar-On and Parker 2000). While statisti-
cally significant gender differences exist for some of the factors meas-
ured by the EQ-i, there is hardly any gender bias on EQ-i as a whole.
Specifically, for the North American sample (Bar-On 1997), females
tend to have stronger interpersonal skills whereas the males outper-
form them in terms of intrapersonal capacity, managing emotions and
adaptability. Women are found to be more socially responsible and bet-
ter aware of emotions, demonstrating more empathy and relating better
interpersonally than men. On the other hand, men score better in terms
of possession of self-regard and self-reliance, coping with stress, flex-
ibility, problem solving capacity and optimism. Similar gender patterns
are observable in almost all studies that use EQ-i (American Psychiatric
Association, 1994). The test, however, did not reveal significant differ-
ences in Emotional Intelligence between the various ethnic groups that
were compared (Bar-On 1997, 2000, 2004; Bar-On and Parker 2000).
The finding is indeed significant as studies over the past years found
significant differences in cognitive intelligence between various ethnic
groups (Suzuki and Valencia 1997).
Stability estimates of the test were reported to be quite high. For
seven population samples, the value of Cronbach’s alpha measuring the
internal consistency ranged from 0.69 to 0.86 for the fifteen subscales
with an overall average internal consistency of 0.76 (Bar-On 2002).
Content validity is reported to be adequate and structural validity was
established through factor analysis to test the hierarchical structure of
the Bar-On model of emotional intelligence (Bar-On 2002). Construct
validity was established through measures of convergent and divergent
validity. Although the correlations were not so significant between the
EQ-i and the other available measures of standard intelligence (Bar-On
2002; Brackett and Mayer 2003), it was distinctly higher for some
measures of psychological and subjective well-being (r takes the value
2 Intelligence? … Emotions? … or, the Emotional …
21
of 0.54 and 0.35 respectively) and for the Big Five personality factors
(Brackett and Mayer 2003). Studies (Van Rooy and Viswesvaran 2004;
Van Rooy et al. 2005) suggest that no more than 4% of the variance
of the EQ-i can be explained by cognitive intelligence. Further, the
degree of overlap between the EQ-i and personality tests is found to be
no more than 15% based on eight studies in which more than 1700
individuals participated. This finding establishes the fact that EQ-i
measures something else other than personality traits. And, this must
be true because the skills that EQ-i attempts to measure are much dif-
ferent from the simple personality traits which unlike these skills do
not enhance continuously from childhood to adulthood and cannot be
improved upon through individual endeavour (Bar-On 2004). These
findings, along with the fact that EQ-i is fairly significantly correlated
with other measures of emotional social intelligence (ESI) establish
EQ-i to possess substantial construct validity. That is, the tool measures
exactly what it was designed to measure. Tests of incremental validity
of the Bar-On model assert that with personality and intelligence (IQ)
held constant, emotional intelligence as measured by the EQ-i can still
predict some of the human behaviour, particularly addictions, pretty
well (Brackett and Mayer 2003).
Further study results suggest that emotional intelligence as meas-
ured with the Bar-On model could accurately predict success in life
particularly in business and industry settings. It could also differenti-
ate between achievers and wash-outs in social interactions, military
schools, air force, work places and academia in different countries
(Bar-On 2002; Handley 1997; Swart 1996). It is pretty good in pre-
dicting impact of Emotional Intelligence on physical and psychological
health, self-actualization and subjective well-being (Bar-On 1997, 2004;
Bar-On et al. 2005; Krivoy et al. 2000).
THE END.
"Wilson, who has been here since the fire, says that her lady was like
a distracted woman when she missed her step-daughter and discovered
that she was nowhere concealed in the house. No one could imagine
how she had escaped, as there was no door left unfastened to Amabel's
room. Even when they discovered the door of communication with the
haunted room, they had no thought of her escaping in that way, as both
it and that leading to the secret stairs were fastened on the other side
and could hardly be broken open.
"The servants did not scruple to declare that their young lady had
been spirited away, and they so threatened the French waiting-woman
that she was glad to take refuge in her mistress' apartment. There had
been a terrible scene between Lord Bulmer and Lady Leighton when it
was at last made certain that Amabel was neither at Highbeck nor at the
Little House. He accused Lady Leighton of playing him false and
conniving at the young lady's escape, and she wept and declared her
innocence and begged him to have pity on her; but he at last, flung
away from her, leaving her grovelling on the ground, mounted his horse,
and followed by his servants, rode away to Newcastle."
This was Wilson's account. How she gained her knowledge I don't know, but she was not
likely to lack any which could be got by eavesdropping or peeping through key-holes.
"My lady was very ill for two or three days, and Wilson waited on her,
the other woman not daring to come in the way of her fellow servants.
At last Lady Leighton received a letter which seemed to calm her spirits
a little, and she told Wilson in the evening to go to bed and leave her, as
she felt like having a quiet night. At about two o'clock, Wilson was
awakened by the smoke and heat, and hurrying down found her lady's
room wrapped in flames. She searched it at the risk of her life, and at
the expense of some terrible burns, but could find nothing of her
mistress. The servants and such men as were left about the place
worked like heroes, and Mr. Lethbridge specially distinguished himself by
his coolness and daring, but a high wind was blowing and the flames
defied all their efforts. The servants all escaped except the French
woman, who, like her mistress, could not be found. No bodies had been
discovered, but the east wing had fallen in, and they might be buried
under the ruins."
"I cannot help thinking there may be another solution of the matter,"
Mrs. Deborah wrote in a private note to me; "but I have never hinted at
such a thing to my brother in the letters I have sent him, nor have I
mentioned it to Wilson, who, poor creature, is about distracted with grief
for her mistress, for whom she risked her life. She rushed into the
building again and again, and Mr. Lethbridge hardly rescued her just
before the walls fell in. The silver, the family paper-chest, and some few
other things, were saved by Richard and the other men. A part of the
west wing is all that is left of Highbeck."
There was no more talk of returning to Edinburgh. Sir Julius at once took horse for
Northumberland, accompanied, at Amabel's own desire, by Mr. Cheriton. She was now out
of all danger, and gaining every day. Sir Julius thought of nothing but that his wife had
indeed perished, and no one was so cruel as to suggest any thing else to him, especially
as, the ruins being explored, the charred remains of a skeleton were indeed found beneath
them. Mr. Cheriton, who was not quite so certain, made inquiries of his own, but could
learn nothing beyond the fact that Lord Bulmer had gone abroad, intending, it was said, to
remain some years, and taking no one with him but a young French servant whom he had
hired in London.
Sir Julius put his family into the deepest mourning, and buried this poor remains with
every solemnity. Then, putting all his business into Mr. Thirlwall's hands, he also went over
to Holland, thinking, I imagine, that he was best out of the way till the matter of his little
journey north was forgotten.
Amabel recovered rapidly, and by the time the snowdrops were in blossom, she was able
to return with her husband to Newcastle. They were very earnest to have me take up my
abode with them, and I consented to make them a visit; though I had no mind it should be
a very long one. I think young married people are best left to themselves to shake down
together. But I could not refuse to help her settle in her new home.
We found every thing in the best of order—thanks to the old housekeeper and Mrs. Thorpe
—and the house was over-running with the gifts brought in by Mr. Cheriton's parishioners.
Mrs. Thorpe was the same, and yet not the same. There was an odd sort of consciousness
and shyness about her, especially when she told me that she had thoughts of giving up her
shop.
"You see I can live well enough without it," said she, "and I am tired of being at every
one's beck and call."
"And have you met Father Brousseau lately?" asked Amabel. "You wrote us last winter that
he had been to see you two or three times."
"Oh, yes. Have you not heard? He has a parish in London, among the French weavers,
where he is doing a great deal of good."
"I am right glad to hear it," said Amabel. "He is an excellent man."
"Then, perhaps, you will not be sorry to hear that he—that I—in short, we are going to be
married!" said Mrs. Thorpe, smiling, in the midst of her confusion, at our astonishment.
"You see, he is such a babe in the woods in respect of English ways, and needs some one
to care for him, and I thought I could do as much good in that way as any other. And I
always did like the good gentleman ever since I took care of him when he was so seasick
coming over on my brother's vessel."
I saw Amabel nicely settled in her new house, and then went back to Mrs. Deborah. I tried
not to be selfish, but I must confess I felt rather forlorn. However, I knew there was no use
in repining, and no sense in it either, seeing that my fate had been ordered by One wiser
than myself, who knew just what was best for me.
So I set to work with all my might nursing Mrs. Deborah, who was growing very feeble and
helpless from rheumatism, and attending to the poor folks and teaching in the school,
whereby I got into some trouble with Mr. Lethbridge from teaching the children one of Mr.
Charles Wesley's hymns. He forgave me afterward, however, and grew somewhat
inconveniently friendly. However, he got over it, and married a very nice young lady.
I helped Mary Lee prepare her wedding set out, and saw her married to Alick, who made
her an excellent husband. I spun a great deal of fine thread, and made baby-linen for
Amabel, whose first child was named for me. I was quite rich for the time and place. Sir
Julius had directed Mr. Thirlwall to pay me the rents of the Black Lees, which was in the
hands of an excellent tenant, and I asked no questions about the past profits which had
gene into Sir Julius' pockets. Besides, I had a hundred a year from Mr. Carey.
I finished Mrs. Chloe's knitted quilt, and made one of silk patchwork for Amabel, which was
much admired. I will not say that I was not somewhat sad and lonely at times, but
generally I was content enough. Amabel was happy as a woman could well be in this
world, with an excellent husband and lovely, healthy children, and I saw her two or three
times a year.
I knew that I was a great comfort to Mrs. Deborah in her lonely old age, and that I was
useful in the village.
I staid several years with Mrs. Deborah, and laid her honored head in the grave beside
Mrs. Chloe's.
Then, being over five and twenty, and my presence being needful in Exeter to settle
certain business matters, I made the long journey thither, and staid with Mr. and Mrs.
Carey several months, after which I came to my present home. It is a very neat and pretty
old house, not large, but convenient and sunny, in a little valley or coombe opening to the
sea.
After I had lived here a year, I put in practise a plan which had been brewing in my head
for some time. I took into my family five or six orphan maidens, children of sailors, and
with the help of an excellent worthy woman, I made a home for them; teaching them to
read and write, to knit, spin, and sew, and giving them other learning suitable for their
condition, preparing them either for service or for ruling families of their own. I never have
more than six at one time, and though they have all sorts of dispositions among them, and
are naughty and troublesome at times like all children, I have been very happy with them.
I have only one of my original flock left, and she is sister, child, and servant all in one. I
fear that I shall soon lose her, for Simon Sablot, a fine young man of French protestant
descent, and a ship's carpenter in good business, is looking after her, and I do not think
she is at all averse to him.
Mr. Cheriton in course of time succeeded to the Carew estate and title, and came to live
upon his lands. This was a great joy to me, as it brought Amabel once more within my
reach. She often comes to see me, and I have one or other of her daughters with me for
weeks at a time. She has been a happy woman, though she has had her troubles,
particularly in the loss of several of her children.
When peace was proclaimed, Walter and Amabel went abroad and visited our old home in
France. They found the convent quite deserted, save by an old priest who did duty in the
church, and the court-yard and cemetery so overgrown that they could hardly find the
place where dear Mother Superior was buried. The community were living and flourishing
in the new house at Fleurs, having received several accessions to their numbers. Mother
Prudentia was still superior, and received Amabel with great affection, though she mourned
greatly over her desertion of the true church. The dear lady sent me some beautiful lace,
and a book of His Grace the Archbishop of Cambrai's writings, which are good reading for
any one, whether Catholic or Protestant. There is, it seems, little or no persecution for the
sake of religion in France at present, though the Jesuits still hold up their heads, and have
whatever education there is for the common people wholly in their own hands. But there is
great distress among the people, especially among the peasantry, and many ominous
mutterings of discontent. If the poor beast of burden does once get loose, I pity his former
keepers.
My Lord Carew is an excellent landlord, and has greatly improved the condition both of his
estate and the people living upon it. He and Mr. Wesley are as great friends as ever. Mr.
Wesley always visits me when he comes into these parts, and approves my management
of the children in general, though he thinks I allow them too much play, * and shakes his
head over the baby-house and storybooks in the girls' sitting-room. However, he admits
nowadays that fiction may have its uses, and has himself edited an edition of Mr. Brooke's
"Fool of Quality" under the name of "The life of Henry, Earl of Moreland," and he has also
written some notes upon Shakespeare, † as he tells me. He is still hale and hearty, and
preaches with all the fire and vigor of his early days, when I heard him in the church-yard
of St. Anne's.
* It is well-known that Mr. Wesley forbade play entirely in his own school at Kingswood
—a strange mistake to be made by such a sensible, practical man. No wonder the
school was not a success.
It is most wonderful to see the changes he has worked in these parts, among the tinners,
fishermen, and other wild people. He has greatly lessened by his influence, the horrible
practise of wrecking, that is, decoying vessels on shore by means of false lights that they
may be wrecked and plundered. There are wrecks enough as it is on this dangerous shore.
I hope we shall hear of none to-morrow, but it promises a wild night, and there are two or
three ships in the offing.
* * * * *
Word has been brought to me that several bodies have come ashore, and that the
fishermen have saved alive two persons who were floating on a spar. One, they tell me,
says he is from Newcastle, and has been a prisoner among the Moors for many years. I
must go down and see if I can do anything for them. I am so silly, that such a story sets
my heart to beating as though Harry had not been dead this many a year. If it should be
he! Well, if it were, I am growing an old woman, and very likely he would not know me, or
he may be married. How silly I am. As if there were one chance in ten thousand.
* * * * *
But it was Harry, and we knew each other before a word was spoken. He was shipwrecked
in the Indian Ocean as we heard, but was saved by a Moorish vessel after he had floated
on some pieces of the vessel for two or three days, and was a slave to the Moors for many
a long year. Being thus forced to serve on board a pirate vessel, he had the luck to be
taken by an English Indiaman, and carried to Bombay, from whence he had come home at
last.
He said he might have returned before, but hearing from some Newcastle man that I was
married, he lost all heart or wish to see his native place again. So he staid in India, where
he got good employment under the company and made a fair fortune.
At last, he conceived a desire to see England again. Coming to London, he met Wilson,
who is comfortably established there in a hair-dressing business, and having formerly had
some slight acquaintance with her, he made himself known to her, and heard the truth
about me.
He was coming to seek me out, when his ship, which was bound for Bristol, was wrecked
and threw him as it were at my very door.
Harry is very earnest with me to marry him at once, saying that we have been separated
long enough, and if we have not many years to live there is so much the more reason why
we should spend them together. I have told him that I must consult my Lord and Amabel,
and he makes no objection, because, as he says, he knows well enough what they will say.
Harry told me, that while in London, he lodged with Mrs. Wilson, who is quite a changed
woman and as devout and serious as she used to be the contrary. He found her caring for
a poor demented sullen creature who never spoke, but spent her whole time in twisting
and untwisting a ribbon in her wasted hands. Mrs. Wilson was as tender of her as though
she were her own child, serving her with the best of everything, and treating her with the
greatest respect, though the poor thing hardly seemed to take a sense of anything.
It was only just before he came away, that Wilson told him this wretched spectre was once
the proud and beautiful Lady Throckmorton. She had found her former mistress sustained
by the charity of some poor fallen creatures in a wretched garret (for it seems Wilson
spends much time and money in visiting and helping the poor) and had brought her home
to spend her last days in peace. The poor thing has a heart disease, and was like to die at
any time.
Never was a woman who had more advantages, or one who more wantonly threw them all
away. She chose the world for her portion. She would have her good things in this life. But
the world slipped from her grasp, and its fruits turned to dust and ashes on her lips.
She did not sin in ignorance. She heard times enough, the voice which said: "This is the
way, walk ye in it." But she chose her own way and it led her down to utter destruction.
Poor thing, poor thing!
I shall go to see Amabel to-morrow, but I know very well what she will say.
THE END.
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