Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1846-05-02

With luxury, music and complete i8ola-
ton from the world, love ripons apace.
1t was one morning, but q fortnight after
the chance meeting of the countess and
Tromlct, described in the foregoing pages,
that the artist found himself, for the first
time in bis lie, wholly u~nsusreptible Of
the seductive temptings ofhis pencil. He
could not paint. Something more criti-
cal than any ordinary anxiety eulveigied
his.art. There sat Jc5sonda, the I'yro-
leso, in the posture in which she was dali
" placed-(for the character her portrait
was to represcnt)-the half finished sketch
on his easel fairly breathing with u new
vision Of bcauty-but he saw that day
neither the sketch nor Jcssonda. The liy-
ing original might well have inspired him,
however, for love more intense than was
expressed in her face and posture never
offered itself to be pictured. 50, indeed, the
artist had interpreted it, if one might be-
lievc his canyass-or her intense gaze Of
admonition was well copied, thought with
the addition of a lofty refinement of intel
lect breathing through the strangely cx-
p~ressiye Iin~caments--but he had giren his
imagination credH. for The lore as rel as
the intellect portrayed before him.
With no suspicion Of what 50 distracted
his attention, from that day, however, jos
sonda was troubled. In the usually alb
sorbod devotion ofthc artist 70 her portrait
in the flushed cheek and eager eye with
which he gazed on the face she saw copied
from her own-she had found stuff for
dreams that made her capable Of jealousy
when that picture was neglected. She.
had halfriscn to leavah him, when a SER
want entered with a letter. The door
closed upon her as he broke the seal, and
Jessonda and his picture were at once for
gotten in the pcrusal :
"MY DEAN TnEMLEr.-En the two days
that | have exiled you from my presence,
have exiled my happiness also-as you
well know without my confessing-but /
needed to sleep and wake more than once
upon your welcome but unexpected ayow-
al. fear indeed, that ! need much more
time, and that reflection would scarce Jus
tify what | am now about to write to You.
But my life hitherto has been such a sue
cessioh Of hcart-chillcd waitings upon
ReasonsAlat for once, while | have the
power, Tam tempted to bound away with
Impulse, after happiness.
"Of course you understand in this an
acceptance 0 your offer. But | have con-
ditions to impose. IT is possible that you
may withdraw your offer, when you know
them. Yet they are so much of a charac-
ter with our acquaintance, and with cur
Intercourse, for the mouth into which we
have crowded an age, that [ have strong
hopes Of your not finding them distasteful.
Letme preface my exactions by some sort
of aBbIogy, Notwithstanding you, that
Is to say, the groundwork Of the GoibIe, If
such you think ii which is to be humoured
by your acguieseence!
81 have merely expressed to you in CON
~versation, how completely my whole life
has been a sacraGce Of natural preferences
to worldly expediency. For my present
station such as it is, / have given gradu-
ally the entire provision made by nature
for my happiness-my girlish ~joyfdlness,
my woman's power of loving, my hopes,
my dreams, my sympathies, my person.
| was forced to sacrafce an early afFec-
ton to marry for title and fortune. ]
have since been increasingly called upon
to choose between my hearts wishes and
freedom from humiliation. You viii say
if was at my own risk if I preferred the
latter-but in every important crisis Of OPP
ton, the threatened evils locked appalling,
and the happiness comparatively partial,
Meantime, | am quite ready to believe,
my pride has been thus fed to disease.
"Of course there is something rung from
the world by these ~sacrafces. To most
victims, the worldly advantages arc a suf-
fcient consolation. But fortune and Gt,