Literary cadet and Rhode-Island statesman. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1827-1829, 1827-05-26
MISCELLANY.
CLARA GLENMURRAY.
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quently spent whole nights at the gam.
ing table. Clara's resolution was al
length taken,-"I will see him." said
she to me, 81 will lay before him the
ruin which his folies will too proba-
bly, bring upon him. l will say to
him every thing that friendship can
dictate; and will request him to re-
lease me from my engagement-for it
is evident he no longer loves me."-
She did SO: Leslie was overwhelmed
with shame and confusion-he acted
all the extravagancies of passion
swore he would never resign her but
with life-and her rejection Of him
would hurry him to some degree of
desperation. Clara, like true wo-
man, soltened by his apparent anguish,
once more promised TO fulfil her en-
gagement at the expiration of two
years, if he totally forsook his irregu-
lar habits and abjured gaming forever.
He promised every thing, though evi-
IDENTIFY piqued at her firmness in offer
ing such conditions. kept vigilant
eye upon him, and before six months
were at an end, too well knew that
he had privately resumed his vicious
habits; yet not so privately as to elude
the careful eye Of one, whose only mo-
tive was a wish to save him from ruin,
and all amiable woman from certain
misery. His ruin could not prevent.
lie was arrested for debts incurred by
his extravaganza, and Clara privately
deputed me to release him, and to let
his benefactor remain unknown
Leslie, conjecturing to whom he owed
his enlargement, and overwhelmed
with shame, stunned her who would
have been his guardian angel, and ac-
ting as it were from desperation, plum
ged yet deeper into vice and folly
Clara's hopes faded away-her health
was affected-her cheek lost its bloom,
and her step its lightness yet her
mildness remained unimpaired. For
some time we heard nothing Of the in
fatuated Leslie; at length he wrote, to
release Clara from her promise, he
said lie Was unworthy Of her, and was
flying to distant country, to bury his
follies and his hopes together. This
total humiliation Of the hope which,
however vain, Clara had secretly in
dulged, nearly destroyed her fortitude
yet she felt less for herself than for
him. She sent him, as if by the re-
quest Of her late uncle, large sum OF
money, and from herself letter, in
which she bade him remember, that
although their matrimonial engage
nent was at an end, Clara Glenmurray y
was still, and ever would be his friend
She conjured him to reflect before i,
was too late, that it was still in his
power to become respectable and hap
py. We soon learned to our great
J surprise, that Leslie had married an
innocent and unconnected young fe-
male, and had taken her with HIM no
one knew whittier. What Clara's
feelings were at this intelligence, we
could only imagine, for she commu-
nicated them to no one-yet the silent
eloquence of her countenance was too
expressive to leave us in doubt.
"Though deeply inCensed at Les
lies conduct, | must confess, that to
Frances and myself this last in,elli-
gence was rather pleasing than other
wise, for we had long ceased to enter
tain a hope Of reformation, and we
knew that Clara had always believed,
that in spite of his errors, Leslie still
loved her, and she secretly indulged a
hope, that his affection for her would
eventually conquer his propensity to
folly and extravagance consequently,
she had made no very strenuous eff
forts to conquer an affection, which,
by being so long cherished, had be-
come a part of herself. We knew
that she would now, both from mo-
tives of pride and principle, resolutely
endeavour to eradicate from her heart,
a passion, which it would be wrong,
as well as useless, to indulge. Nor
were we mistaken: Clara's purity OF
heart her adherence of the duplici-
ty apparent in Leslie's conduct tow
lards herself: her high sense Of female