Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1843-12-07

rows, yet they were henceforth to have no in
terests nor thoughts but in common, and that
no sense of dependence on her part should be
permitted to mar their mutual happiness The
first intimation or betrayal of such a feeling
was allowed to Justify Adolph in pressing an
immediate though necessarily secret union
Meantime, she would remain at the cottage,
while Adolph prosecuted his studies to their
completion, with permission to visit his aff-
anced at intervals, and promise that those
visits should not at any rate become so fire.
quent as to interfere with the ardent and faith
full discharge of his responsibilities elsewhere.
Fair and gentle readers! You are looking
forward with throbbing hearts and sparkling
eyes to an after-life of joy and felicitv-to a
picture of enhancing domestic happiness, of
deepest, hottest, most endearing welded love
Alas that it should be mine to break the
spell which now sleeps your warm fancies in
delicious but perilous elysium! A sterner
and sadder truth it is mine to commend to
your understandings, but for which this narra-
tive had remained unwritten. Too much of
the dangerous. the intoxicating elixir of ro-
nance has been instilled into your hearts al
ready-I would not chill, yet | would sober
and fortify them with the colder, truer lessons
Of reality.
Adolph resumed his studies with calmness
and assiduity, if not with the enthusiasm of his
earlier devotion; while Bertha divided her
hours between the lessons commended to her
by her lover and the work which, through the
influence of her good hostess, she was enabled
to obtain, and to which she chung with tenaci-
ty, in spite of every remonstrance. Idleness,
in her position, would have been itself tor
ture, in addition to the sense of dependence,
which could only be endured when escape
from it was impossible and perpetual study,
IN Of hon hohs kc IS onrNsn and oH
state of mind, was wholly impracticable. But
she gave her best energies alike to book and
toll and Adolph had no reason to complain of
her proficiency in the former, however, he
might have wished that the lessons which per-
tain to childhood had not been deferred to this
period.
Yet it was not long before the student be-
gan to feel painful suspicion that all was not
as it should be-to suspect and accuse himself
of adoring his betrothed with less intensity
than he ought. Even before single month of
their engagement had passed, he had learned
to feel far less than rapture in her presence
less than misery when absent from her side.-
His visits were neither frequent nor protracted;
yet the conversation often tagged for want of
topics of mutual appreciation and interest
The silence of few moments was succeeded
by feeling of constraint-a feeling ever ag-
gravated by its own consciousness On the
brink of union with the beautiful and gentle
being whom his heart had chosen from all the
world rs the sharer of its thoughts and sympa-
thies no less than of its joys and sorrows, he
experienced dsquiet and foreboding which
i'll became an adoring and aflianced lover.
Of course, these misgivings were not betray-
ed to the maiden, still less acknowledged to
himself Occasionally, shadow crossed his
mind, and was instantly repealed as if sugges-
ton of the Evil One. Meantime, the engage
ment, which he had hoped to keep profound
secret secret, became known. as might have osen SH-
lions, real or affected, of his friends and fell
lows with resolute taciturnity. He could
have very well dispensed with them; but even
the malciously intended did not seem to him
to rise to the dignity of an annoyance. 1t was
with different feeling, however, that he heard
the subject opened to him by the venerable
and kind Professor, who had been the Mentor
of his collegiate course and the director of his
studies.
"I hear you are to be married, my son 7"
was the weli-m interrogatory Of the Pro-
fessor, as soon as his greeting had been return
cd.
{" You hear truly, believe" said Adolph,
coloring.
"And to young, uncducated peasant girl,
from a secluded hamlet, whom you have known
but these two months "
Neither is that unlike the TRUTH" was the
cold response.
Are you not about to commit grave er.
ror ," was the still kind inquiry which succeed
ed, accompanied by searching, though pa
ternal look.
al believe have arrived at what should be
years of discretion" returned Adolph, in the
comes too late to be proftably pondercd"
The Professor bowed, with an air Of unmo-
we'd kindness, to which shade Of sadness was
added, as the answer was concluded. He gil
ded away 40 noiselessly that when Adolph ceas-
ed to await his speaking, and looked up tocom-
mencc an apology for the seeming rudeness Of
his last retort, he was surprised to find himself
alone. But that brief conversation had opened
impcratively the way to tOrturing scrutiny Of
the hidden and fearful reccsses of his own
heart
A new incident soon marked the progress of
Bertha's for some time monotonous and tram
quill life. A youth of her native village, Al
bert Korler by name, who had fled from the
ravages of the pestilence which bcrcft her of
her last remaining parent, had wandered to
Gottingen, and, hearing that his former play
mate had found there a residence, he sought
and found her. The meeting was to her one
of lively pleasure, though the memory Of for
mef joys and sorrows eventually gave to this
and their succeeding interviews a more PEN
sive interest. To him. alas that meeting was
one of mingled rapture and despair. He had
loved her from early childhood-at first, with
a boyish preference, and admiration, which
grew with adding years into the wild idolatry
Of a doting lover No word Of this had he be-
trayed to the object of his intense devotion
the youth of both, his own timidity, and her
seclusion from all but her mothers society,
had conspired to defer from day to day the
avowal which he would have given worlds TO
be assured would be received with tenderness
and favor. Still, as they casually met he bent
on her looks of affection which might have
been brothers, and was repaid with kind
ness of manner which glowed for all. In the
simplicity of her innocence and youth, she
misintcrpreted wholly the nature of his atten-