Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-01-05

| An i knew what You would say for you
have said it once before, Alice, repeating,
though in softer words, the stern sentence of
my father, that a plebian was no mate for
Lady Eleanor Seagrave."
-, =" | did not apply term SO offensive to him,
| did /, Eleanor ?"
"No but you meant it, when you said, Rich
ard Arncliffe surely has not presumed to raise
his thoughts to SeagraYe! And what were
| then your ideas ?' d.
"Nay, dearest Eleanor, 7"
"Say no more, Alice, for it is evident you
considered adventitious circumstances alone :;
remembering the humble birth of the companion
| of our childhood, and forgetting all those high
and heroic qualities, those virtues and talents
which were early appreciated by me, and which
have been since so fully acknowledged by his
country"
"But he has gained distinction in bad
cause, my Eleanor"
GAY, as we have been taught to call it."
"a good man and high-born gentleman
would not have sided with traitors, with fana-
tics, and hypocrites," said Lady Alice
II have told him SO myself, unhappily," said
Lady Eleanor, signing land like blind idiot
have sacrificed happiness to party feeling His
high spirit could not brook injurious taunts
from any one, but least of all from me-"
"You have then parted in wrath"
"Yes, never to meet again These were his
last words The scorn of your proud kindred,
Lady Eleanor, I could have borne as / have
borne it, for your sake, but your own cannot,
win not endure Forget, pray you, that
one so much beneath you as Richard Arncliffe
ever dared to think it possible that you could
love him for himself Try, cease to remember
his existence unless the hour should come
when you may require the services of one
true friend
"Nay, then he loves you still"
"Yes, in that soreness and bitterness of
spirit which will make the once dear name of
SeagraYe knell to his ear, and her remem-
brance as two-edged sword to his heart"
said Eleanor signing.
"Better to be present to the mind of the
beloved on any terms than to become the OBJ
ject of indifference" rejoined Lady Alice, as
they left the chapel.
The scene that had there been transacted
was not suspected by any individual in Beech
mont House, save those already in the secret
and the welded co-heiress of Seagrave contin-
ued to move in the domestic circle, and to pur-
sue her maiden occupations as before but
there was a pensive abstraction in her manner,
that betrayed that her thoughts were little in
terested in her employments. The pattern
fingered on the embroidery frame. Her eye
was unconcious of the contents of the page
on which it rested, when, to escape the task of
mingling in general conversation, she took up
some favorte volume and pretended to bury
herself in its contents and if she tuned her
lutte, it was only TO give utterauce to the
feelings of her heart, by singing ditties of the
gallant and devoted cavaliers whose cause
was becoming every day more perilous while
the Mercuries and Diurnals, as the newspa-
pers of those days were called, were watched
for and devoured by her with the most eager
interest, III the hope of gaining, through the
medium of their columns, intelligence of her
absent husband. Every day she rose from the
perusal of these journals of the rival parties
whose strife troubled England, with pale
cheek and apprehensve heart She knew that
Montfort was shut up in Colchester with the
last remnants of the adherents of the royal
cause, by the victorious army of Lord Fairfax,
and the accounts of the straitness of the siege
and the suffering of the besieged, from the
scarcity of provisions, and their frequent los
ses of gallant and euterprising officers in the
desperate salles which they were constantly
making upon the beleaguerers, were such as to
fill her with the most acute apprehensions.
With scarcely less intensity of interest were
the same papers scanned by Lady Eleanor
but the feelings which attended their perusal
were certainly of very different tone from
those of Lady Alice for every column of the
Parliamentary Journal set forth the achieve
mentS, or bore testimony of the talents and
popularity Of him who engroSsed so considcra
BILE portion Of her thoughts.
"Ii0w strange :" observed Lord Seagrave,
one dav, as he tossed the Perfect Dturnaf
from his hand with an ejaculation of contempt
chow passing strange it is, that the Round
heads should keep up sHch an eternal pother
about our old apothecary's son. Dick Arm
cliff" s
"Are not the destinies of England chiefly
ruled by the son of brewer? ?" rejoined Lady
EleanOr,-"a more ignoble calling, | ween,
than the learned art of pharmacy"
"Humph," retorted Seagrave, 'there be
small grounds for dispute, trow, between the
claims of the quart-pot and the gallipot for
precedency All can say is, that | should
be sorry to see my family bearings quartered
with the cognizance of either"
'There is little chance now / fear, of any
of the leading members of the new govern
ment forming an alliance with families suspect
ed of attachment to the old order of things"
said Lady Eleanor
$50 much the better" rejoined Lord Sea-
grave al neither desire to connect myself
with ruined spendthrifts nor upstart traitors
It was a bad dav for men who had anything
to lose, when the ill-omened names of Cava-
liers and Round-heads were first heard in Eng
land. protested from the beginning that !
would have nought to do with either. Tell
me of men like my future son-in-law, Sir James
Balders"
"a stagnant pool in the midst of vortex
of contending waves; dish of skinned
mill, that noth;no 20 N aCitata bnt its own acer-