The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1865-11-21

81 am glad to hear you say that, dear
Miss Hope. I am glad | am going to
India too, though / shall never see you
again For if l staid in England l should
only fall out of favor again, and then I
should have the pain of seeing you hate
me more than ever perhaps"
By this time the tears were running
down his face.
ST have never disliked you, Grantley,"
she said have pretended to do SO, but
Il was mere pretense ; and have tried
to dislike you, but | could not I like
you better than you like me, Grantiey-
q great DEAL"
"Hope !"
What was it? What happened !?
What madness took him? Neither Of
them ever knew, boy and girl as they
were but Hope found herself clasped to
his heart, with her arm around his neck
and their flushed, wet, youthful faces
laid against each other.
But they were not in smooth water
yet, and had something more formidable
before them than even their own childish
misunderstanding and blindness had been.
Though John Rashleigh might forgive q
girlsh freedom / ke that Ct which Hope
had been guilty, it was by no means GER
tain that he would forgive this far graver
sin. The light Of his eyes and the pride
of his heart, she for whom lords and
princes would not have been too good, to
give herself away at sixteen to a poor re-
lation Hope knew all the trial to be
passed through. 1t must be met, how
ever, and that at once unless she ana
Grantley would undertake clandestine
orrespopdence-for which the one was
too proud and the other too honest; or
unless they would give up each other
which neither would hear of. What she
anticipated came to pass, in even an ex-
aggerated form. The father was furious !;
violent beyond anything she had dreamed
possible; but girl as she was, she was
firm, and Grantley could not yield her SO
long as she would hold to him.
Then came that terrible collision of
two wills equal IN strength, and the bat
tie of love and pride which tears mans
very aoul Look which way he would
there was no comfort for John Rashleigh
and refusal or consent was equally mad
ness and despair. But he must decide.
The proud man had to balance with the
father; and eventually the father won the
day. Yet he would not consent to the
marriage for many years, even after they
had come to ripper age than what is gen.
orally considered ripe enough and when
he did-When Grantley came back from
India with character and repute Of his
own, and his cousin found that poor re-
lation and daughter had not swerved a
hairs breadth from their yonng love, and
were minded to marry without his consent
If it could not be with-even then when
forced to yield, Grantley, found his roses
decidedly not without thorns. His sweet
mes of temper though conquered before
the end came; and when John Rashleigh
was dying, he confessed that Grantley
had been the best son, and the dearest,
father ever had; and that now, when the
things of the world are slipping away from
him and he was beginning to learn their
emptiness, he was glad that Hope had
married one who, by his better influence
had made her a nobler and a gentler wo-
man.
"But you were thief, after all, my
boy, and stole greater treasure than a
paltry bank note,' he said lovingly, not
an hour before he died.