in the Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
Sometimes, I want to be like Cinderella with her dazzling glass slippers, and flaunt a trail of fairy dust in my wake, but not always . . . at other odd hours? I wish to keep my wonder close to my heart and marvel at sparkle still hidden in the dark!
This desire is further sharpened by a passage from a children’s book I read long ago—so long ago, I must confess I forgot the title. So I sent out this question on various social media channels, not sure if anyone could help me with my vague memory. To my happy surprise, tmargo73 on Threads replied quickly on the same day:
Request:
“Can anyone remember a book where a girl is riding in a carriage, feeling very pleased that her boots are hemmed in crystals even though no one else can see them? I thought it was Emily of New Moon, but I couldn't find the passage, so maybe it is a different book.”
Reply:
“The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge? Maria and her governess are in a carriage near the start of the book. ‘The crystal beads, as it happened, could not be seen, because Maria's grey silk dress and warm grey wool pelisse, also trimmed with white lamb's-wool, reached to her ankles, but she herself knew they were there’”
Ah, this was indeed the lost literary fragment I was looking for. Thank you, Thriend!
Why has this particular passage lodged in my mind for so many years? Maybe it’s because there’s something so luxurious in the idea of Maria reveling in the concealed glitter of her shoe embellishments. I especially adore the line, “but she herself knew they were there” (Goudge 8). For these boots were “calculated to raise the lowest spirits,” and simply the secret knowledge of her covert crystals gave her “strength that can scarcely be estimated” (8).
Maria didn’t need to make her crystal-beaded boots tangible to an external audience to enjoy the full bounty of the beauty they brought her own existence. Such concepts of quiet pleasure and inherent worth can feel hollowed out when we are constantly mirrored by a digital era designed to showcase all we are, just so.
Yet Maria’s private meditation on her shiny boots is threaded with a delicious vim, for “the perfection of the hidden things was even more important to her than the outward show. Not that she did not like the outward show”(8). Her keen bliss reminds me that a hidden sparkle is not always merely sequestered or buried. Sometimes, it’s our secret strength—latent and mysterious as a midnight star behind a passing veil of clouds.
So may we all find our own heart-cloaked crystals! Whatever sliver of scintillation gives power to your personal expression and makes you smile even when sometimes, only the shadows share your joy.
*For a further exploration of the joys of coming into your own sense (and strength) of style, might I recommend the delightfully zany comedian and fashion personality Jessie Jolles. She casts aside outside notions of looking “cool” for just having fun, and advocates taking your favorite outfit for coffee!
Source:
Goudge, Elizabeth. The Little White Horse. Penguin Books, 1946.
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