The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-11-24
IConcluded from First Page.

ture with Stephen Moreland, utterly
unexpected as it was, had been even
greater than she had expected; for he
had set his heart on the match,
which, in every point, except, per-
haps, the difference of age, was an
altogether unexceptionable one. But
he was too sensible man and too
tender father to fight long against
the inevitable, and he at last yielded
an unwilling consent to the new en-
gagemept, but with the proviso that
a year should elapse before it was
ratified.
ssIt will take longer than that to
reconcile me to it, Sir John said.
''Idon't like the fellow, I haven't faith
in him. He'd no business to make
love to you when he knew, as every
body did, that you were engaged to
another man. I say nothing about
you, Rosy; it'll take me many year
to get over Mt1t"
But now the old man, if not salts
fed, was to certain degree resigned
to the match. He tried, for Rosy's
sake, to like his future son-in- law,
and as, in point Of appearance, man
ners, family and fortune, there was
no fault to be found with him, he
resolved to make the best of what he
could not prevent.
OF course the lovers were happy :;
that it is hardly necessary to state
George Wilbraham was the very man
to be the beau ideal of eighteen. Not
one girl in hundred is in the least
to be depended on in her judgment
of a man till she is some way out of
her teens. A beauty-m who rides
and dances well, and who knows it,
who is tolerably agreeble, and who
has the manners of q gentleman, is
safe to captivate the hearts-that is
to say, to make a very strong though
perhaps by no means indelible) i'm
preston on the.surface of the hearts
OF nineteen girls in twenty, before
they have put ten and ten years to-
gethcr not to talk Of those who are
susceptible to similar attractions for
many years later.
And Yet young love is so sweet and
pure and natural thing, that it is
very hard to impugn it. Shall we
despise springs blossoms because they
are not summers fruit Shall we
frown on the gambols of yon white
lambs because they are not staid sober
sheep, who have been shorn so often
that they know the ways of men, and
mistrust them ?
They rode together, did our lovers !;
they drove together they sang to-
gether in the long winter evenings,
badly enough, and not always quite
in tune; but with hearts in harmony,
what did that signify? And George
presented Rosy with the very smallest
and most hideous Skye terrier that
could be had for love or money-the
dog-fancier had had him from "a
oarty" who had taken d month in
comprising the stealing of him; and
though Rosy hated Skye terriers and
all ugy things, however costly, she
got up a spurious affection for the
creature, and tried to believe that in
a big head, a thin neck, and a long
lean body, lay the true line of beauty.
Were there ever times when Rosy
remembered that with Stephen the
conversation never used to flag, as it
did now and then at present? that
Stephen had no dread or horror of a
wet day, and no sense of ennui under
it? that he never was annoyed at
trifies, and that, on the whole, though
more than ten years older than
George, his views of things in general
were infinitely fresher, and brighter,
and more hopeful, than those of that
handsome young man?
cannot say; but I know what Sir
John thought on the subject.
However, it was Rosy, and not Sir
john, who was to marry George SO
perhaps it was not Of so much conse-
Quencc.
Rosy and her lover were riding one
dsv ainong the lanes in the neighbor-
hood Of Halliday Hall, unattended
by a groom. In the hedge, some
sin nl1la l1 rinb o1l hoo11t;f f,.l ol..n44> 4>,.l.