The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1858-06-19


bye to school life forever. Her father
was wdower, and his heart had long
been fastening toward the day when
Mrs. Hpusekeeper should abdicate, and
his own flesh, in female form, again take
precedence i'll his own house, and rule.
The day was come now. She who left
at midsummer as child, enters at Christ
mas lis mistress.
The informing consciousness of the
new position she was about to take up,
had developed Lizzie very rapidly the
last half-year. She came into the house
as harvest, which an intense summer
has ripened earlier than expected, comes
into the barn. She had made the very
utmost Of her studies. She had made
up the stories Of children, and read the
books of women.
External influence also had furthored
this development. The governcsses had
treated her as lady and an equal
Her milk and water had been Drowned
with few drops from the teapot. "For,"
thought the ancient sisters, /" there a1e
two younger Miss Wilson's she can
send them, and she can keep them away"
The scholars behaved to her as IL superior.
The view of proSimate womankood awcd
them. They also kept prolific eye
toward possible invitations and treats at
the farmhouse, when Lizzie should reign.
| suppose the reader foresccs that
Lizzie, in the bloom of. nmidenhood,
awaiting love, comes to William, in the
vlgor of youthhood, awaiting to love,
that she may be loved. 1t is so. lie
was very open to the mysterious and
intangible strength fair maiden carries
about her. He would bend in moment
to glrllsh influences. Ills fathers house
had never supplied any. lie had neither
sister, girl cousin, nor girl acquaintance.
Chances from girls who passed him on
the Long Row would sit opposite his
soul all night. lie would 60 forth to
watch for the same face a second evening.
But the urgent needs of the cause of
Liberty, and the cold fact of monaco
quaintancc, drove these beautiful visions
away. They acted as indications of Il
tendency, but nothing more.
Upon him came a young girl with dusk,
mellow eyes; alert and shy as the little
harcs he had watched many an evening
in the close at Stoke Bardolph with a
voice ordinarily gentle and quiet, but
alive and prickly in moment at fun ;
slow and smooth in moment at sad
things with u hundred merry stories of
school and girls tricks and simple ac-
counts of her own endcavors to put away
girlish things and over all rainbow
of mild-colorcd modesty, and sclf-dis-
trust, and belief that every one was
wiser and better than herself. All this
William saw the first evening. lie added
to it the thought, that he was about to
live with this maiden for space of
years. Not to fall in love with her in
that period would be impossible. What
is to be, may as well be at once. That
very night he went alone, and said her
name to himself again and again. That
very night be felt he was about to sur
render his soul to her.
Christmas passed away; the snow
went The rain of February went, and
the winds of March. Williams demo-
cratical ambition went also. The die
tatorship of Nottingham began to look
valuelcss. The love of Lizzie had taken
away its worth.
But did Lizzie love him. Sometimes,
as she turned her brown eyes full upon
his, to answer or to ask some question,
he would think she did. Then he would
watch her eyes as she spake to her father
or to some friend. He thought he could
see the same look. He would 90 to bed
miserable. "Shc sheds clarity upon
Inc and upon all, she is so good" he
said. 1t is not my own special, claim
able lore l read in her looks.''
In the later spring, when evenings
were heightened and duties done, Will
liam took Lizzie for long walks. His
purpose, when he started, was to find
out whether she loved him. Again and
again he came back, knowing no more
than when he went.
At last the evening came. They
walked first to the ferry, intending to
borrow the wears boat. But it was
out So they turned up the steep
ascent Of the cliff which the Trent flows
beneath. The narrow winding path on
the height of the cliff ran under bows of
hawthorn and lime. On one side OF
them the fields stretched out towards
Bingham, in alternate tender green OF
the springing corn and deeper green Of
hay nearly ready to its harvest. On the
other the steep sides Of the cliff slantcd
in some parts, in some abruptly fell to
the marshy riverside. The green slants
were covered with moss and grass here
and there nettles, here and there prinl-
roses, and leaves of violcts lying over
one another like thickset shields. Be
tween the lines and May bushes, long
green trails of the blackberry strettled
and wandered, and stiff sloes stood up,
and hazels. Ruddy brown lines were
worked among all this green, by the
constant play of childrcn's feet up and
down the venturous sleeps. just under,
visible through the gaps, the Trent bur-
ried on at its business-likc pace, and the
long silver line wound and stretched,
was hid and re-appeared in many field
past Holmc Pierpoint Hall, and beyond
Colwick wood.
~