The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-09-30

CHAPTER X.
Tie Lodys Privilege
she spoke with passion afer pause, And it wise
IS done,
# We who cannot gaze above should walk the earth
alone
II we whose virtue is weak, should have will so
strong,
And stand blind the rocks choose the night path
from The wrong. +
A. .o,,h we feel TOO strong in veal to need thee that
road.
But being come, The soul is dumb that crieh not on
Got~-T The Lay ofthe Byorcn Rosary.
Constance, in the mean while, had been be.
ginning to find out, to her utter dismay, how
fearfully she had triaed with her happiness.
Fancy end Chance combine to cheat many
and many girl who sits in drawing room, as
fortuneteller cheats girl who stands in a
kitchen The fortune.teller says, in the
kitchen, "On such day, in such a street,
you shall meet q noblemsn, who does not yet
know his psrentage. He will offer himself to
you. You shall marry him, after which all
will be revealed. You may know him by his
wearing two roses, one white one and one red
one, at his button-hole" Ia due time, she
sends forth neighboring grocer, enamored Of
the maiden, with the decoration specified; aid
the girl, beholding, says to herself, There are
the roses Here is the nobleman."
Fancy, in Ike manner, foreiells in the draw.
ing room, to the maiden who sits there, "You
sLal lon meet a man, handsome and rich,
usually, bat with variations to suit the taste of
various msidens, kind and excellent. Him
you shall marry; and he shall prove to be all
that your heart can DESIRE"
Chance puts in the damsel's way rich and
handsome sutton; and, seeing the wealth and
the beauty, the damsel confidently says to her.
self, There are the wealth and the beauty
here are the kindness and excellence"
As we have seen, the red roses by which Con
stance had been expecting to recognise her
mate we're genius and hsroism. He had them,
but they we're out of her sight, snugly buttoned
up in his bosom; and thus it happened, that when
her heart knew him, and, like spiritual table,
softly raped and tapped, "This is certainly hel'
her brain, not always the truest part of a woman,
doubled, and she was wholly uuprepared for the
unaccountabe pain which she felt in turning
from him. She thought that it would and
must soon cease; but, as when nerve has been
wounded, it only grew and grew.
Under the influence of one Of those almost ir-
resistble, and inexplcsble unless demoniac, i'm
pulses, such as make a child in passion tear
up It's garden and dash in pieces its favorite
playthings, in spite of a lurking suspicion that
it is pretty to be very sorry afterwards, she
had hurried through the complete breaking off
Of their intercourse. Mr.. and Mrs. Van Roose.
landt, who had already stayed at the Revere q
week longer than they had intended, for her
pleasure, willingly left B oston with her as soon
as their trunks could be packed, and, within a
week after their return to New York, provided
her with a safe escort to Baltimore.
A slight feverish attack followed close upon
the fatigue and excitement of the time, and
served further to confuse her recoilections OF
her parting interview with her lover. Even if
she had been willing to return to it, dwell upon
II, and consider in cool blood her own part in
1t, she would from the very f-st have had much
difficulty in recalling it with any aistinctness !;
aud weeks and months had passed. further eff
facing the record, before shs was willing. She
could not, when at last she tried to do so, rec
clect how decided and harsh her rejection of
Herman had been, nor how impossible che had
made it for him to renew his suit. Accustomed
as she had been to unbounded serviIity on the
part of her declared admirers, his silerce at
times appeared to her irritated and self-torturing
pride proof that the remuneration had been as
much his as hers and it was gall and worm
wood to her to be forced by suffering to &C
knowledge to herself that she could suffer for
The cake Of one, not only, as she thought, unwor.
thy Of her, bat indiff .rent to her.
Why" she would say to herself, "did ma
iure make me no stronger or no weaker ?-strong
enough to renounce him, too weak to forget p
strong enough to transfx my own heart, too
weak to draw the weapon out again? ?"
For some time after her recovery, in other
respects. from her illness, her loss of color, ap-
petite, and spirits, continued SO apparent that
her aunt, Mrs. Ronaldson, of Baltimore, at
whose house she was, became quite distressed
end alarmed about her. She conferred with
the physician who had attended her niece. He
only laughed, shook his head and declared
mat he could discover no vestige of q sick
room obstacle to her being as fat and rosy as
any dairy maid but that bellies would some
unes have their ballroom diff culties, and those
al old Plli-porter like himself could hardly be
expected to understand or alleviate" Mrs.
donaldson wss most tender and warm.heart
90 woman, and would gladly have done any
'nlng Tor Constance, that sympathy and kind
ness could do, if she could only have found out
Shst 10 DO, or what the matter was. She
uaIed not question the repellsnt sufferer but
sne Eentured to write pleasant note to Mrs
an kooselandt, begging she would tell her
whether Constance had made any copquests
Hnue under her care as she Mrs Ronaldso
naturally felt great interest in her successes !;
and as that young lady was always too modest
give any account of them herself"
Mrs. Van Rooselandt deposed, By return
post, that, "Miss AspenwalI had been
rS'ner quiet aud domestic while in Boston,
aau apparently little interested in general 80
eey' one had become we'll acquainted there
""G very agreeable family of unmarried
S.Paans, named Arden, and passed much OF
oef Hme with them en- .fdmile. But the eldest
=. me Two brothers, though the finest young
LOU ID the world, was a confirmed bachelor
Snom no one would think more likely to marry
euah the man in the moon, and little too
uufo1sntc, and given to raillery and satire.
W. sne thought, to be likely to suit Miss As
peIWAlrs taste; and the younger, Mr.. Herman
bnroen' was not only still quite bow, but had
OenaVed very sadly and disgraced himself at
sumo place of public entertainment, too. abe
sStgfetted to hear, just before they left Boston
que que could not tell precisely how it was, for sbe
LOU lou Oeen very much occupied in looking at
s sSme exquisite pointlaces at Mudge's When
sue sue neaTd some ladies speaking of it; but she
sbnni LSsaly very sorry that anything of the sort
prss,r ,; nave happened for he was a genteel,
And ,!''ie youth, and very attentive to herself.
himseIf always, IN her presence, conducted