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Show ROMANCE IN RUSKIN'S LIFE Divergent Religious Views for Long Time Separated Him From the Woman He Loved. In 1SGG Ruskin declared his love for Rosie La Touche and told her parents of his hope to make her his wife, says J. Howard 'Whitehouse In Scribner's. There was a great difference of years between them. Ituskin was forty-seven ; Rosie was In her eighteenth year. There was some natural hesitation on the part of the parents, and it was arranged ar-ranged that the matter shouldbe postponed post-poned for three years. But when the period of probation was ended new difficulties arose. There was hesitation not only on the part of the parents, but also by Eosie. Miss La Touche was of a deeply religious re-ligious nature, but her views were orthodox or-thodox and she did not share the wider views on spiritual questions in which Ruskin increasingly believed. Her love for him had never wavered wav-ered since the days of her childhood; but she doubted if, holding the views she did, she could marry him. Both she and Buskin suffered the deepest distress. For a little time there was estrangement, es-trangement, and there is a moving entry en-try in Raskin's diary in the year 1S70: "Last Friday about twelve o'clock at noon my mistress passed me and would not speak." In tho following year there was reconciliation. Tho end of Ruskln's dream came la lST,"). Miss La Touche's health never strong, began to fail, and she died in May of that year. |