Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1832-10-10
|(vou are verv like her, dear,) she did not look as

I(vou are verv like her, dear she did not look as
Won do fo,dav."
| A fresh bnrst Of tears was the only reply, as
Sophia, now agi ated beyond all control, gave y
free vent to the lde of passionate grief which had
all dav been gathering and swelling at her heart.
Her kind old friend mingled her tears with those
of her beloved nursling; and, sad as was this
moment, it was perhaps the most soothing, and
the least bitter one, which Sophia had experienced
for long while. The sympathy with her I'M
happiness, which, though rather felt than express
ed, she yet perceived to exist, was sort OF balm
to her dried up and aching heart. There were
few more words spoken between them, till she
started up and once more utterlng, In broken
voice, "God bless you--God bless you dear
Inurse,'' flung herself into those kind arms that
had been her chIdhood's resting-place, imprinted
one more fond kiss on the withered cheek against
which her own had often been pressed, and tore
herself from the cottage"
/ Time again passes away, and Sophia is wife
without single stir of the holy love of the we'd
ded state in her heart. She is still Talbot's; and
he, wretched and sinking under the great grief of
his own causing, is still Sophia's At last the
third event, that marks and decides her life, ar
rives. She is at fashionable party in London
Obliged to move into society without being in the
least affected by its enjoyments. This is the
third night.
"On entering the dinlng-room, the blaze of
light, so Immediately succeeding the darkness
above stairs, was at first dazzling to the sight,
Sophia felt it so; and it not till she had gain
ed her seat that she raised her eyes, just gems
Itleman Immediately opposite took his Each, at
the same instant, looked upon the other. Every
drop of blood in Sophia's body seemed to make
Ian instantaneous revulslon to her heart, only to
rush back, like torrent of liquid fire, till each
vessel of her head throbbed to bursting. The
room swan around her; the lights reeled before
her ewes. 1t was Talbot whom she saw before
Iher.
Talbot! Yes! II was Tabot-her first, her
last, her only love. II was that most guilty, most
miserable of beings, who now, with bloodless lips,
and fixed eyes, and heart whose pulsation seemed
arrested in his bosom, sat gazing on the apparition
of her whom he had injured, insuted, yet oh! a
mid sin and madness he had never, never ceased to
ADORE THIS was indeed a time and place for
such fearful recognition! They had not met,
had not looked upon each others face since that
night when he clasped her in his arms, and i'm
printed the kiss ofan af6anced bridegroom on her
lips, at her own chamber door. Horror, agony,
and despair had rolled over either head since that
remembered evening; but thew had never me-
since then And now they sat and beheld each
other and they knew that. let them dream as they
chose, of pride, and of arrangement, and of Oh
livion, it was all dream; that thew loved at that
moment as deeply and as fervently as they loved
on the dav when their hearts were plighted to each
other and they felt this, and they felt that gulf
was betwixt them, that it was guilt and madness
to look upon each other; that she was wife; and
he, what was he? reckless, and abandoned, and
a miserable man.
And then the horror of such meeting, at such
a moment! Talbot would have started from his
seat, would have rushed from the room, from the
house, would have fled he knew not whiher.-|
His senses reeled, with the sudden shock ibis brain
seemed on fire, but he still had recollection sufii
cen to tell him where he was; how many maig-
nant ewes single unguarded movement might
draw upon them; and that thought chained him to
his seat, like one arrested by the wand of an en-
chanment. A minute of mute, and cold, and
shuddering agony, a very age in torment, and then
came the desperate resolution, that he would not
be overmastered, or made gazing stock in the
ewes of the world. He Ieant hack in the chair,
passed his death cold and over his damp forehead
through back his clustering dark hair, & called tn
the servant whostood nearest to him for wine. Ill
was brought, he poured large quantity, with
hasty hand, into the goblet beside him, drank il
off at draught, and sat calm, collected and Sc.
rene, to all outward appearance, though every
nerve In his frame was thrilling with agony.
And Sophia? she to whom, at least, the slight
est betrayal of her sentiments must bring shame
and horror unuterable: she too, even in the very
instant Of recognition, at the moment she could
have welcomed the hunderbot which should Law
her dead upon the ground, still, If by instinct
exerted that wonderful power of sef-command|
which has been in mercy bestowed upon women,
as if in peculiar manner to arm them against
the trials which they are perpetualIy called upon
to encounter. NJ sound escaped her parched and
trembling lips: she resisted the impulse that
prompted her to rise from her chair, to fly from
the apartment; she struggled against the cold,
creeping chill that she felt was coming all over
her; she neither tainted nor wept; but like one
striving in desperate battle for his life, who has
Just received stunning blow, and is still Keeling
under it, but only fights the more strenuously and
unHinchingly, she bent all her half Frustrated en-
Iergies to endure with unshrinking forttude, the
orunt of the dreadful conflict to which she felt
them summoned.
1t cannot be supposed that the terrible, though
brief, agitation of Talbot could pass altogether
unobserved of those near him, yet owing to the
hustle around, it did not attract universal notice
I,p1 b,J tho ra nd cole mo etnrv wi oh