Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-05-20
busy with the past. Each word and glance

they were looked and spoken.
I 40, memory thou lingerer
Within joys broken SHE'LL
: Why can we not in losing ALL
Lose thee as well ?"
Thrice Lily clasped her hands in prayer
not for submission to heavens will, bu
that she might again awaken and fine
this misery dream and thrice the an.
gels stern decree, "Thou hast chosen
, thine own fate p sealed up the unuttered
words.
"Oh, Walter, Walter why did you
leave me thus, without one word to softer
down this bitter separation2 How could
you let me learn my frst great grief from
strangers lips Oh, why not tell me
you had ceased to love-for believe you
loved me once--and that another now pos
sessed the heart deemed my own? To
know you felt but one regret for the pain
you were inficting, would have braided a
sunbeam of light in the cloud of dark
despair that overcasts life's sky, but all is
bl lackness now. Yes, it was with rash
presumption that chose my fate Better
far, thousand times, to have seen thee
cold in death before me, than to endure
this living torture. Hadst thou died,
might have followed thee, and buried a
broken heart in the cold and silent grave /;
but now, alas uncompromising pride for
bids the lethe of that dreamless sleep, and
| must steel my heart to suffering, array
my face in hollow smiles, and deceive as
haCe been deceivedi Thou shalt never
guess this heart hath felt pang. I'll
smile, and dance and sing, echo the care
less jest, and in the whirlpool Of society
drown recollection"
L ly arose and made her toilet with un-
usual care-selecting cerise merino, that
its glowing color might tint with its own
warm hue the unnatural palor of her
check. Reseating herself, she broke the
seal of her neglected package-a tear
welled up from the aching heart and dim
med her vision, as the familiar writing met
her eye, but she sternly crushed it back
upon its source, and with an unmoved
countenance read:
DEAREST LILY; How my eager hand trembles,
and my full heart palpitates with joy, as pen this
letter How shall tell you the good news which
have for you Oh that had wings, that might
fly to communicate what will give you SO much
pleasure. Mother is crying for joy, and brother has
run off to the garden to conceal his emotions. Fa-
ther Hardy laughs and cries alternately, and my
hand trembles so with agitation that can scarcely
write Grandpa has sent for us He said that
friend told him of your noble, sef-sscrfcing spirit
and it melted him to tears; and it is to YOU my
patient, loving sis. owe our restoration to his
favor. But | will not tell you the contents of his
letter, as shall enclose it for you. Dear Lily how
happy it makes to think that you will no longer
be shut up in that close schoolroom teaching noisy
ungrateful children. Come home, Lily Come at
once. 1t seems to if | could not wait for the
aggard hours that must creep by before you can be
with us Do not stay to finish out your terIa--you
will not need that pittance now; let them give il
to some one more necessitous, and return without
delay, to the hearts that beat impatently for your
arrival. Here comes Grandma Maitland and aunt
Hannah to congratulate us, SO must conclude this
crazy SCROLL again repeating, come home to your
loving friends and sister ANNIE.
A great JOY too often precedes great
sorrow, even as a calm doth storm and
the dark whirlwind of passion that swept
across the sky of Lily's life, moved down
the tender plants of love and friendship
leaving barren waste where so much of
beauty grew, Nor did she seek to win
again the lovely plants to life the green
robe of hope faded with the summer
leaves into the yellow garment of despair
The chill convcntionalities of society en-
crusted the surface Of her feelings, with a
chilling frost through which the plant Of
love might never pass.
To be Continued.
! Hon. EDWARD BATEs.-The Hon. Ed
ward Bates, of Missouri, recently wrote a
letter to 'the Whig General Committee, q"