The Romance and Tragedy

ed lover, as I had brought myself to believe it would be, and my disappointment

any other man of her acquaintance, while she did not feel the

I deemed a grea

her admiration and respect into love. How to do that was for m

on was not the sort of girl to admire a man who had a habit of falling in love with every pretty face. Life in her eye

that I had said, telling her I would wait until she felt she could give me a def

ter promptly, while I was prepared to wait, years if necessary, rather than to take from those li

cticut was postponed for a while and this

in all those little attentions that please a woman, and as our tastes we

he would remark it, and I soon realized that the feature of her day was the hou

oon urge Miss Wilson to relieve me of suspense by making me the happiest of men. Probably I should have done this within a few da

my mail at the office an envelope addressed in a lad

ould be due at New York and was going at once for a week at West Point, and asked me, if

points in that note, the firs

Stowe. Next, it was signed as "Yours, with love"; and last, but by no

for me to meet that t

of the old Twenty-seventh Street station of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company

rom the car, I greeted her. How I gazed into those beaut

ating," the luncheon, despite the good reputation of that old hostelry, then in its palmy

age, and drove to the pier where the M

hom had known for longer than a few months even of the existence of the other, and yet a divine power had brought these two hearts, beating in unison, to their natural mate. While the lips whispered "yes," the hand found it

windows, I clasped to my heart the

tasy of bliss t

, but as I look back to that day of days, that shabby public hack, with its rough-looking d

tful sail up the river with her, and there was every reason why I should. I sought out a secluded spot on

this way a sort of lover's wireless telegraph kept us in communication

e too happy to talk, and the beautiful scenery

ere all that was in our hearts was the sup

d at West Point, Lie

at the Academy, after

for gallantry in the

at the

ore Railroad at that time-and return to New York by train, but Lieutenant Har

, great incident of

, and she did not enl

ad

oped to be able on leaving to see her alone for at least a few moments, but in this I was disappointed, and while the clasp of her hand and the

ed, we corresponded daily, and the rejoicing was mutual

opened to my eyes! The refinement and natural dignity of the woman made her caresses of exquisite daintiness and tenderness. Spontaneously and absolutely without a sug

g is pure love! What woul

r parting was

separation so soon after we had become engaged saddened us and our hearts dreaded the ordeal. Still, come it did, and as I watched the train pull o

ould with the letters which reached me al

ned my fac

he wife of a general in the army during the war, and at the time of which I write, judge of the Probate Cou

oved of our engagemen

ould be desired. As t

to leave it to the ima

rely satisf

til the time of our marriage, a full year away, I had to return to New York after a few

rk I settled down to business with increased ambition