Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-27
"a considerable in my cabin. and

gentlemen to cruise with me. But the foot of
lady had never been on the deck of my boat,
and began to have an old bachelors pride in
the fact Yet confess to you a secret longing
for some sort of affection different from any
had heretofore known, and restlessness when
men talked of beautiful women in my presence.
One summer evening, was at the old ball in
which my uncle died, and was entirely alone.
Towards sunset was surprised while looking
over my books, by the entrance of gentleman,
hastily announced, and giving indica ton of no
little excitement.
+" Your pardon, sir, for my unoeremonious en-
trance. My horses have run away with my car
riage, and dashed it to pieces near your park
gate. Ny father was badly Injured, and my
sister is now watching him. I have taken the
liberty to ask your permission to bring them to
your residence"
OF course my consent was instantly given,
and my own carriage dispatched to. the park
gate. .. .t
Mr.. Sinclair was gentleman Of fortune, re-
siding about forty miles from me, and his father,
an invalid, fifty years or more of age, was on
his way, in company with his son, to bis son 8
house, there to die and be buried. They were
strangers to nae, but made them welcome to
my house, as if it were their own, and insisted
on their using it.
Miss Sinclair was the first woman who had
crossed my doorstone since had been posesser
of the hall; and well might she have been loved
by better men than l. She was very small and
very beautiful-of the size of Venus, which all
men worship as the perfection of beauty, but
having soft blue eye, shaded by jet-black
brows, her face presented the contrast of purity
. of whiteness in the complexion set off by raven
hair, and yet that hair hanging in clustering
curls, unbound by comb or fillet, and the whole
face lit up with the expression of gentle trus
and complete confidence either in all around
her, or else in her own indomitable determine.
ton; for Mary Sinclair had mind of he
own, and far seeing one, too. She was thel
nineteen.
Her father died in my house, and l attende'
tho solemn procession that bore his remain
over hill and valley, to the old church in whicl
( his ancestors were laid. Once after that calle
? on the family, and then avoided them I CO
not tell you what was the cause of the aversio
felt to entering chat house or approaching tn
Q influence of that matchless girl. believed tina
s | feared the magic of her beauty, and was i'm
o pressed with my unworthiness to love her or
: loved by her. | knew her associates were {
o the noble, the educated, the refined, and that
o was none of these. What then could expet
T. but misery, if | yielded to the charms of tha
exquisite beauty or grace which knew were
% her soul!
II A year passed ; and was the very boy in m
N continued thoughts of her. | persuaded m.
10 self thousand times that did not love he
n and thousand times determined to prove 1t b
10 entering her presence AT length threw IN.
,e self into the vortex of London society, and WI
p lost in tho whirlpool. eos
ID One evening, at o crowded ASSEMBLY, wa
d, standing near window in recess, talking vii