The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-03
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For the National Era.
JASPE Err: A ROMANCE.
BY EDWARD SPENCER.
XI.
H.. Al. o. CT
BY EDWARD SPENCER.
Ho,c the Gardener Sends a Letter.

lcHAPTKR ELEVENTH CONTINUED
Ruth said Mrs. Fleming to her, one day,
4" let US have no secrets from each other Some
time-my heart is too sore, now-I will tell you
the sad story Of my love, my pride, and my woe,
for the three go hand in hand together my
daughter, the triple threads woven in nv wool
OF life. 1t is the history ola blight selfnhicted
added she, with fearful shudder, g that fear
is not yet enough punished. Oh, what dread
have! But let us trust, Ruth, trust in the
darkest hour. You have seen grief, my poor
child, much grief for one so young and so love
ly, but the whirlwind has not swept destroy
ingly through YOU You have never loved and
lost, as / have. Oh, my God such love and
such loss First Gilbert, then Jasper have
learned to school myself, to be calm, to affect
unconcern; but SO much the stronger RACES the
fire within, and so much the more am | con-
sumed by it. Oh, artiice, hatefulest demon
through it and my pride have seen all taken
away from me. kept my heart hid away from
Jasper, and he fed me- thinking me monster.
To him l was sham, perpetual mask-wearer.
He never knew me, save as the cold upholder
of the proprieties, his mother only by authority,
and in thwarting his wishes, in checking his
warm impulses. Come, let us to his room
again-save you and me, no one has been there
since he we mt away. Everything is just as he
left it. Here is the impress of his limbs upon
the bed, where he flung himself down despair
ing. Here is his book, dashed down in mad
impotence. Oh, Ruth, do you think he guesses
how often have watched and prayed beside
love hm-how much love him-and yet, it
was my love that smothered and crushed him. y
"You do not love him as / d." murmured
Ruth, giving the words sweet, slow utterance,
and playing with them, as if their sound pleased
her. The little maiden could not believe any
love equal to her own--and reasonably, because
she had given up her whole life to this love.
But Mrs. Fleming answered:
"Not as, but as mach, my child. Our ma
lures are different, and our loves tend"diversely
Wewould, think, equally sacrifice ourselves fol-
him, but in far different ways. You would give
up to him, and give up for him, whenever there
seemed to you to be need for so doing You would
see him married to another, unreproachingly, il
in SO doing you thought he would be made
happier, though you died for it. In Q word, you
would suffer for him, passively. Not so with
me. would see him famous, would make him
so, by my own DEATH if need be; but he must
acknowledge his Indebtedness to me; must yield
where will. If suffer, must suffer actively
wounded in the strife, not pining from neglect
i must make an employment, pleasure, Of the
pains undergo. You love tenderly, clinging
IL, like the flower to the wall; love like the
flame, in which the steel is tempered and made
battle proof Help me, Ruth, to soften, to grow
calm, to ,rin the love l fain would have con
quersd. Oh, Ruth, cried she IT'D grea
start and tremor, Z" oh, r.''- II, mortally
fear shall never see him IN ill never
never come back again! o. -, me, tho
thought is awful, intolerab.s. II r-sA- sy heart
scotches my blood, sears my brain, drives me
frantic, mad Oh, Ruth, pray 10 your God
pray, only pray that Jasper may come back te
me once more, even if only to die in my arms
to have his mother fit him for his shroud, anc
close his stifened eye-lids."
Mrs. Flemings agony was awful to witness
Indeed, just here was the source of nearly al
her present suffering. She feared that she haC
lost Jasper forever, as she had lost Gilbert for
ever. She had so newly awakened to the sense
. of how completely wrong had been her princi
Piles of action during life, and how false to thu
true and good had been her motives and THU
consciousness was so vivid that her despair wa
very natural 1t preyed upon he= mind NOR,
and more every day, this terrible idea, that i
was part of the expiration she was to make fo
her hateful pride, to lose Jasper forever. H.
. was never to come back to her, because she hat
proved herself SO utterly undeserying. Tn,
thought had gradually become part of her be