Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia

over him, and a helpful insensibility interposes for the relief of pain, we may avail ourselves of the respite to look into

th resources diminished to a cipher, endeavor to break ground once more in unknown forests, and commence the toils and troubles of life anew. With an only son (the youth before us) then a mere boy, and no other family, Colonel Ralph Colleton did not hesitate at such an exile. He had found out the worthlessness of men's professions at a period not very remote from the general knowledge of his loss of [36] fortune: and having no other connection claiming from him either countenance or support, and but a single relative from whom separation might be painful, he felt, comparatively speaking, but few of the privations usually following such a removal. An elder brother, like himself a widower, with a single child, a daughter, formed the whole of his kindred left behind him in Carolina; and, as between the two brothers there had existed, at all times, some leading dissimilar points of disposition and character, an occasional correspondence, due rather to form than to affection, served all necessary pur

he first hour of his enterprise. In worldly concerns he stood just where he had started fifteen years before; with this difference for the worse, however, that he had grown older in this space of time, less equal to the tasks of adventure; and with the moral energies checked as they had been by continual disappointments,[37] recoiling in despondency and gloom, with trying emphasis, upon a spirit otherwise nobl

ousehold and with those about him, which form so large a practice among the people of the south. He could give a dinner, and furnish an ostentatious entertainment-lodge his guest in the style of a prince for weeks together, nor exhibit a feature likely to

entertained for the poor; and, from perceiving that among men, money could usurp all places-could defeat virtue, command respect denied to morality and truth, and secure a real worship when the Deity must be content with shows and symbols-he gradually gave it the chief place in his regard. He valued wealth as the instrument of authority. It secured him power; a power, however, which he had no care to employ, and which he v

es of their mothers. To the younger brother Ralph, a son had been born, soothing the sorrows of the exile, and somewhat compensating his loss. To William Colleton, the elder brother, his wife had left a single and very lovely daughter, the sweet and beautiful Edith,

have been so forward as to assert warmly, if challenged to immediate answer. Suddenly, however, when young Ralph was somewhere about fifteen, his uncle expressed a wish to see him; and, whether through a latent and real affection, or a feeling of self-rebuke for previous neglect, he exacted from his brother a reluctant consent that the youth should dwell in his famil

egree, when he yielded to his brother's arguments and entreaties; but, conscious of the uses and advantages of education to his son, he felt the selfishness to be a wrong to the boy, which would deny him the benefits of that larger civilization, which the uncle promised, on any pretexts. A calm review of his own arguments against the transfer, showed them to be suggested by his own wants. With a manly resolution, therefore, rather to sacrifice his own heart, than deny to his child the advantages which were held out by his brother, he consented to his departure. The reproach of selfishness, which William Colleton had not spared, brou

e emulation of college life; the sports and communion of youthful associates-served, after a while, to soothe the sorrows of Ralph Colleton. Indeed, he found it necessary that he should bend himself earnestly to his studies, that he might

ed, intellectual, handsome, vivacious, manly, spirited, and susceptible-as such a person should be-once again in close intimacy with his beautiful cousin. The season which had done so much

d, had made his character a marked and singular one-proud, jealous, and sensitive, to an extreme which was painful not merely to himself, but at times to others. But he was noble, l

a politician, had left them a thousand opportunities of intimacy which had now become so grateful to them both. Half of his time was taken up in public matters. A leader of his party in the section of country in which he lived, he was always busy in the responsibilities imposed upon him [41]by such a station; and, what with canvassing at election-polls and muster-grounds, and dancing attendance as a silent voter at the halls of the state legislature, to the membership of which his constituents had returned him, he saw but little of his family, and they almost as little of him. His influence grew unimportant with his wards, in proportion as it obtained vigor with his faction-was seldom referred to by them, and, perhaps, if it had been, such was the rapid growth of their affections, would have been but little

ercourse. How imperious were the dictates of that nature, to whose immethodical but honest teachings they had been almost entirely given up. They lived together, walked together, rode together-read in the same books, conned the same lessons, studi

oying the sweet association which had been the parent of that passion, dependent now entirely upon its continuance-they had been content, and had never given themselves any concern to analyze its origin, or to find for it a name. A momentary doubt-the presages of a dim

ly exercised little concentration of mind in scanning its contents. He skimmed, at first, rather than studied, the pages before him; conversing occasionally with the young maiden, who, sitting beside him, occasionally glanced at the volume in his hand, with something of an air of discontent that it should take even so much of his regard from herself. As he proceeded, however, in its perusal, the story grew upon him, and he became unconscious of he

, he threw down the volume and followed her into the room where she sat pensively meditating over thoughts and feelings as vague and inscrutable to her mind, as they were clear and familiar to her heart.

ith, how unhappy th

why should it m

eel assured must be correct, that I am unable to resist its impressions. We have been happy-so happy, Edith, and for so many years, that I can not bear to think that either of us should be less so; and yet that volume has taught me, in th

clamation of the astonished girl-astonished no less by the impetuous manner than the strong language of the youth; and, with the tenderest concern she

But it has told me so much that I feel is true, and that chimes in with my own experience. It has told me much besides, that I am glad to have been ta

taught him to think better of her affections and their

n the utterance. You would [44]tell me to have no such fear; but the fear is a portion of my

ssuringly, with a gentle

ny other affection. But how long is this to last? that book-where is it? but no matter-it has taught me that, now, when a few months will carry us both into the world, it is improper that o

over the cheek of the maiden, as she wit

too have learned the lesson. And is it

y and without objection, taken into the grasp of his. The youth, after a brief pause, resumed,

ingle word. I love you, believ

ly in phrases such as these, that it had the effect of restoring to her much of her self-possession, of which the nature of the previous dialogue

strange indeed if you did not. I believe you love me, as I

ed, an hour ago, should I altogether have understood myself. Suddenly, dear Edith, however, as I read certain passages of that book, the thought darted through my brain like lightning, and I saw into my own he

wh

Edith-as my o

his lips were pressed upon the taper and trembling fi

her hands, and she was bewildered with her own discoveries. Her cheeks alternated between the pale and crimson of doubt and hope. Her lips quivered convulsively, and an unbidden but not painful suffusion overspread the warm brilliance of her soft fair cheeks. She strove, ineffect

the place of old ones-that there may come a time, dear Edith, when I shall see an arm, not my own, about your waist; and the eyes that would look on no

wrong in this-I have no such [46]wish, no such thought or purpose. I do not-I could

are mine, and I am yours! The

murm

alph, you

light brown hair, loosened from the comb, fell over it in silky masses. Her eyes closed, his arms still encircled her, and the w

s a cat

4