The Law and the Lady

le more than an hour when a chan

ry of passion that speaks, to try the deeper and finer rapture of passion that thinks? I can hardly determine; I only know that a time came when, under some strange influence, our lips were closed toward each other. We traveled along, each of us absorbed in our own re

g my mind with him, while I felt him

r first meeting in the neigh

heavily clouded sunset lay low and red in the west. A solitary angler stood casting his fly at a turn in the stream where the backwater lay still

me; the fish

"playing" the fish. Along the bank I followed to watch the contest of skill and cunning between the man and the trout. I had lived long enough with my uncle Starkweather to catch some of his enthusiasm for field sports, and to learn something, especially, of the angler's art. Still following the str

n the firm ground. Short as the interval was, it proved long enough to favor the escape of the fish. The angler had heard my first instinctive cry of alarm, had turned, and had thrown aside his rod to help me. We confronted each other for the first time

recover myself. Wha

then something more, urging him to run back

ppointed my uncle would have been in his place, I apologized very earnestly. In my eagerness to m

me and change my wet dress. I cared nothing for t

parts, he told me, for the quiet and retirement as much as for the fishing. He had noticed me o

to be acquainted. I invited him to visit us, as if it had been my house; I was spell-bound under his eyes and under his voice. I had fancied, honestly fancied, myself to have been in love often and often before this time. Never in any other man's company had I felt as I now felt in the presence of thi

d him by my side; he was mine for life! I lifted my head from his bosom to look at h

n his corner of the carriage. Was he deep in

him. My thoughts wandered backward once more, and showe

ether in secret. We were walking slowly to and fro, out of sight of the house, now

out to meet him that night with a heavy heart, to seek comfort in his presence and to find encouragement in his voice. He noticed that I sighed when he first took me

om my forehead as he spoke. "I see the lines here which tell me of a

hy

is place, and your uncle would be satisfied, and you would b

u want me to forget my cares, say

in each other. I came back to realities fortified and composed, rewarded for all that I had gone through, ready to go thr

ncle, always kind and good to me, has been kinder and better than ever. He has told me that if I persist in becoming your wife, I shall not be deserted on my wedding-day. Wherever we may marry, he will be there to read the service, and my aunt will go to the church with me. But he en

e yesterday to increase the

es

t is

g my uncle to a friend

Major Fit

written to Maj

hy

so utterly unlike his natural tone tha

as I understood him, had several motives for writing to the maj

uddenly s

ng that I could venture no further

approved so absolutely of her son's marriage that she (and the members of her family, who all agreed with her) would refuse to be present at the ceremony, if Mr. Woodville persisted in keeping his engagement with Dr. Starkweather's niece. Being asked to explain this extraordinary communication, Eustace had told us that his mother and his sisters were bent on his marrying another lady, and that they were bitterly mortified and disappointed by his choosing a stranger to the family. This explanation was enough for me; it implied, so far as I was concerned, a compliment to my superior influence over Eustace, which

s to venture on very delicate ground. Eustace relieved me from furth

any answer from Major F

Y

nk as he said those words; his face betraye

nswer with me to

to read it by the light of the moon. The letter was short enough to b

t he is a gentleman by birth and position, and that he inherits (under h

ays

CE FITZ

answer than that?" Eustace asked

about you," I answered, "it woul

ain enough fo

N

does h

care to know

t between us in this matter. Did your uncle say

es

t wa

er over. You see he takes no notice of my proposal. I asked him for the address of Mr. Woodville's mother. He passes over my request, as he has passed over my proposal-he studiously confines himself to the sh

stopped

your uncle's que

said that I did not under

ay next? If you love me, V

Eustace. He is an old man; you

fended. What

h his family, to which Major Fitz-David is not at liberty to allude. Properly interpreted, Valeria, tha

stopped

se words?" he asked, scanning my

say what my uncle says.

bosom, and fixed his eyes on

think kindly of me, my darling, when

ng to him in an agony of terror

eak. "I am yours and yours only. What have I said,

ve never found in any other woman the sympathy with me, the sweet comfort and companionship, that I find in you. Oh, it is hard to lose you! it is hard to go back again to my unfriended life! I must make the sacrifice, love, for your sa

is eyes, put me beside myself; his wo

nothing who I lose, or what I lose! Oh, Eustace, I am only a woman-don

re the misery and madness in me forced the

me. He vowed-oh, in such solemn, such eloquent words!-that his one thought, night and day, should be to prove himself worthy of such love as mine. And had he not nobly redeemed the pledge?

aste the dear delight of seeing him by my

e sweet realities of the present, I let my cheek touch his cheek,

put my hand up to my face. What did I feel on my cheek? (I had not

m me. I turned it toward me, w

usband, on our wedding-day,