The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1851-08-16

not till then"
And she did struggle on, in agony
and anguish Of spirit, to subdue and
overcome her feelings. But in vain.
Under such a warfare against human ma
ture, her health gradually gave way, md
her friends said she was rapidly going
into the consumption, and advise" her
to try a change ofclimate. She did so;
and they iancied her recovering, and no.
ped soon to have her again in The social
group with restored health, All, little
did they anticipate they were SO soon
10 place the green sod Of the valley above
her! Ii was about this period, in one
OF her letters TO me, for we corresronded
regularly, she remarked, 81 feel again
all The freshness and greenncss of carly
youlh-ieel as when first became ac-
quaIntcd with him." She rcte rred to
Arthur, but never now mentioned bis
name. al live not in the present.
exist again iii the joyous past. But alas!
what an iIlusion lrouse myself to the
reality--to what is passing within me,
and feel the loneliness, the utter dcSola-
ton of my condition. | am coming
home--l long again for home. You
will tell me a sight of the place where
SO many pleasant hours have been pas
srd will probe and cause to bleed airesh
those wounds which time is closing.
Butno, believe me, no---those wounds
nor time, nor art can close. And there
will be pleasure, Il melancholy pleas
IRE, in treading the paths we have trol
together, and admirns the beauties we
have admired so often. Yes, am COM
ing home'---
With outstretchcd arms we welcomed
her, and did all we could to make her
situation happy. For allher friends and
acquaintances now said the seeds of dis
case were deep planted in her constitu-
ton, and she could survive but few
years.
One day, as she was reading the pa
pars, her eye rested on the marriage of
Arthur Merton to a Southern lady.
Though Lilly had vowed so often to for
get him, and had wrestled so bitterly
with her feelings, and though she had
heard nothing of him for several years,
so great was the shock, and so ovrrpow-
ering were her emotions, that the paper
dropped from her hand, and she tainted
away. Her aunt knew not the cause of
her swoon. But when they carried her
and laid her on her bed, where she
slowly opened her eyes, they attributed
it to general debility--eXhaustion from
her dcceitlul malady.
had been absent for some time, and
for the last two months no tidings of
Lilly had reached me. la written
several times but had received no an
swer. Why was this Why had our
correspondence terminated SO abruptly!
| could not divine the cause of this long
silence on her part, till letter from her
gave the painful intelligence that she
had been ill-had been too low to write,
and in it she urged me to hasten home.
s'For," she said, 81 wish to meet you
once again on earth, and | feel that |
shall never see the SHOWS of another
winter. The onl v chord that held me
to earth has snapped, and am fast pas
sing away-am now on the verge OF the
grave-!ingerinS between time and eter-
nifty. My heart has become barren,
and dry as summer dust. Earth has not
for me single attraction. wish, but
to see you, and then go home and be at
rest.'
Without delay fastened to her, and
thou gh aware of the nature of her
disease, found her in even a more delicate
situation than had anticipated. She
was confined to her chamber, and
the most of the fine to her bed, and as she
Law there sofrail and delicate, her raven
hair, which once hung in ringlets, braided
over her snowy brow, | wondered why
men invest death with such terrors, and
so shun the grave, Surely there can be
nothing fearful in death to those who
have lived ight--to those who have con-
sidcred themselves as pilgrims here on
earth iourncying forward to the Mecca
of the faithful beyond the skies-the pa
vilions of Jesus Of Nazareth.
Day after day I'D linger in the cham
Der of the invalid a. / notice her gradu-
ally wasting away, and her eyes becom-
ing brighter, and her voice more spirit
ual; and as the melancholy autumn wore
on, and nature assumed more solemn
and gorgeous aspect, her frame declined
more rapidly, and TO use her own Ian
suage, ''she could feel her spirit strug-
cling to escape from its clayey prison
house,
One evening the sun, sinking from The
world, poured flood of radianc%
her room, for the mild beautSof
ing had induced us tq
shutters, and raising