Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-04-01
CHAPTER ".

-- 'r "- ti Onhf LII lf. -. i' ailtt
The magnificent parlors of one Of our
Broadway mansions were thrown open to
invited guests, and were sparkling with
beauty and resounding with mirth when
Fenelon Randolph entered, and seeking a
retired mich in one of the windows, half
concealed himself in the enveloping folds
Of the heavy curtains. There, resigning
himselft to the listless contemplation of the
scene before him --tastelss, as yet, because
wanting the one bright object, which alone
had power to chain him there. Minutes
seemed hours, in passing; and growing
restless and uneasy, he came at last to the
reluctant conclusion, that she would not
appear; and resolving to seek her else
where, he stepped forth from his conceal
ment, but, in so doing, his eyes fell upon
the object of his thoughts, leaning, in her
pensive loveliness, upon the arm Of pre-
possessing looking gentleman, in whom he
recognized her attendant upon the first
vanced towards him, and again he sought
the obscurity of his retreat, and as they
passed near him, the low musical tones Of
her voice fell upon his ear, and he caught
the words. All no Lope is not and an
essential Of life or happiness % Randolph
started grew deathly sick, and faint, and
sunk back overwhelmed with the tide of
feeling that rushed upon him. with new
and strange conviction. Hitherto he had
worshiped this unknown divinity, at a dis
tance, much as one would star, in the far
away heavens, gazing, admiring, adoring,
yet deeming it too unreal, too unattainable
for loring and in the wild ABSORPTION Of
this devotion he had never paused to en-
quire, whence this emotion? or whittier
does it lead?. But now she had come near
to him, he couldahave put forth his hand
and grasped her, as she passed she was
real and tangible, a woman he had heard
her voice, and it spoke of lore, Love Oh
heavens could it be that he loved her?
He
Shocked and maddened by the thought,
he rushed precipitately from the room, and
on and faster to his dwelling, and in the
solitude of his own chamber tried TO calm
down to reason and order, the chaoetc
tumult raging in his breast. Diligently
he sought, amid the rubbish of time and
study, to find the jeweled retreat of his
youthful love, but when found the flowers
were faded, the incenee exhaled, the fairy
flown. All throughithat long night, he
wrestled manfully with that terrible con-
giotion; but when the darkness had died
in the east he laid him down, conquered,
by the mighty truth,--'I have a wife,--I
love another Sleep at last stole over bis
exhausted frame, and with the sleep
dream. Again he wandered among the
flowers and vines Of Amelin's home, and by
his side moved his girl-wife in all her fresh
young beauty and bouyant life. And now
he paused and, plucking half open rose
bud, presented it to her, and stood for a
moment, to catch the enchanting smile of
ineffable love, suffusing that radiant face
and then his eyes rested on the emblamatic
rosebud, and even while he gnzed, it with
cred and dropped in her hand, and thorn
hitherto concealed by its clustering leaves
stood revealed, and rapidly increasing,
changed into a long glittering sword. Fill
ed with borrow at this metamorphosis, he
sought her face for explanation, when, to
bis amazement, he beheld, not the Inca.
ments ofhis gentle bride beaming with love
and JOY, but the perfectly defined features
of her unknown rival, now no longer wrapt
in pensive reverie, nor lit up with the glow
Of enthusiastic delight, but her peerless
beauty veiled, by the look of whitening
soorn, aud contempt, with which she re-
gardcd him, aud this, anon, gave place to
maligsnt scowl as she raised the glitter
ing steel and burried it in his bosom. With
an anguisbed cry, he awOke, to find it but