Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-10-02

leXtremely but, thank God, still feel confident
that shall be able to restore you to health and
happiness. / have not so blind confidence in
the drugs and remedies of my profession, but
that am truly rejoiced to perceive | shall have
to treat you rather for mental care than for cor
poreal indisposition Forget that | am doctor,
and look upon me as your old friend, your faith
er's old friend, and tell me what is weighing so
heavily on your mind? Perhaps may be able
to tighten the burthen for you"
Mrs. Delaware" You are kind friend, but
you cannot restore me to sleep or appetite;
must bear my fate"
Doctor" Your fate, madam nothing puts
me out like sOupcon of romance; j you ought to
be continually grateful for so happy fate. The
Adored wife Of one Of the most distinguished,
handsomest, and best men of the day, possessing
a large fortune, mother of the most promising
boy in three kingdoms"
Mrs. Delaware (lnterupting j." And is it
not hard fate to break that noble husbands
heart, to abandon my Darling Cecil on the
Threshold of life? o, mercitul God, it is in
deed too cruel"
AT these words, | began to fear my fair pa
tlent had listened too long to the honied words of
some deceiver, who was striving to induce her to
abandon her happy home, and all its virtuous
joys, to embrace life of misery and shame but
there was SO much real anguish in her looks and
voice at the idea of separation, that, though most
sincerely grieved, was not much alarmed
Doctor (gravely but kindly -" God will exact
no such sacrifice from you He demands no sew
ering of such sacred ties; in the twenty five
years in which have been engaged in soothing
and healing my fellow creatures, have gained
much experience, and with it some power to ad-
wise; nor have | been so unobservant of the
ways of the fashionable world as not to have
marked the perils to which youth and beauty are
exposed, even when guarded by husbands
watchful care; but believe me-
Mrs. Delaware eagerly interrupting me r.
"Stop Doctor; blush for the mistake have
thoughtlessly led you into. To clear myself
from the suspicion have given rise to, I see |
must confde to you the cause of my illness and
depression; but before do SO | must receive
your solemn promise not to communicate what
I may tell you to Colonel Delaware until after
my DEATH"
readily gave the required promise, which, in.
deed cost me nothing; for have invariably found
in all anxious and trying cases, husbands and
mothers prove very troublesome confdants Mrs
Delaware then related the following circumstan.
ces -
A month previously, she woke rather earlier
than usual and not wishing to rise Immediately
passed an hour in reading letters animal a"ev.
lnetism. She then laid the book aside, and fell
asleep; she was reused from her slumbers by
her bedroom door opening, the clock on the
mante-piece striking ten at the same moment
and two men in black entering. AstonishmenI
kept her silent as they advanced TO the table in
the centre of the room. One, an old man, kept
his hat on, and leaning one hand lin which he
held rule and pencil,) on the table, turned
round to address his companion, who, hat in
hand appeared to be deferentialy awaiting his
orders, which consisted in minute directions re-
specting the making of coffin-the length
breadth, thickness, lining, etc., being all accu
rately described. When he ceased sPeading
his subordinate inquired what the inscription was
to be; the old man replied speaking slowly ant
II. onad twa
two, deceased at midnight on the 10th Of April
1885," At these words both, for the first time
looked earnestly at Clara, and slowly left tht
room. Shaking off in some degree the spel
that had hitherto bound her, she rang her bell
and her maid Immediately answering the sum
mons, she found, to add to her CONSERVATION
that this maid had been sitting for the last thre
hours in the room through which these men mus
have passed. Finding, on further investigation
that no one in the house had seen her lugubri
Gus visiters, she gave herself up to supernatural
, terrors and conceVing that she had received
, warning that she was to die at midnight on tn
, 10th of April, she had lost appetite and sleeT
and was, in fact, fast sinking under the impres
sion that the hour indicated was fated to be he
last.
At first was quite rejoiced to find it was nc
worse and, rubbing my hands with even NOR
apparent glee than really felt, asked her hov
7 she could possibly have allowed an uneas
: dream, engendered, no doubt, by the mystic ma
tire of the book she had been reading, to dis
turb her so much, adding few jesting observt
, tions; but the mournfu expression of her cour
= tenance checked me, and at last, taking it up sc
rously, endeavored, by every argument thu
= suggested itself to me, calling in the aid of RI
t hgon, philosophy and common sense, to demo
j ish the monster her Imagination had raised.
Q vain; could not hatter myself that even for
d moment her belief wavered. When | arose
depart, which did, promising myself to retur
again and again, when | had considered IL
n case little, she gave me a letter sealed vii
black, to deliver to her husband after her dealt
a Reflection added considerably to the uneasine
j. | already felt. saw her altered form VIII
Il dire havoc imagination had already made; al
}, when the extreme nervous susceptibility of h
system was considered, there was but too mut
o reason to apprehend the worst might happe
unless her mind could be relieved from its pre-
e ent state of painful tension by some most sati
| factory and conclusive means. Telling her hu
If band his wife required amusement and chang
l. and requesting him to procure her daily son
If friendly society, SO that she she should be as i
l. tie alone as possible, paid her myself long al
e frequent visits. All my spare moments Ell
e ployed in searching books for anecdotes and q
guments, which trusted might prove more co
IS vincing than my own. Often in the night | co
graduated myself on having found some ne
v light wherein to place it, that must at once sat