Had he but been free, or mated with a nature akin to his own, he would have felt himself as truly the heir of creation as any young man that lived.

But his lot was cast, and his youth had all the serious aspect to himself of thoughtful manhood.
In the region of his art alone he hoped always to find freedom and a companionship which his home life could never give him.
Clement meant to have visited his beloved before he left Alderbank, but was called unexpectedly back to the city.

Happily Susan was not exacting; she looked up to him with too great a feeling of distance between them to dare to question his actions.

Perhaps she found a partial consolation in the company of Mr.Gifted Hopkins, who tried his new poems on her, which was the next best thing to addressing them to her.

"Would that you were with us at this delightful season," she wrote in the autumn; "but no, your Susan must not repine.