The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-01-26
NV Racheler Friend,

MY Bachelor Friend,
Who has seen good deal Of the
world, and of that peculiar portion
known Us woman, told me one of his
sentimental experiences the other day
while We were lounging in Greenwood.s
give years ago about this time" he
said, ~ was sitting near this spot with
very pretty and extremely romantic
girl who had long declared that she
loved me, and who, though blessed
with q wealthy father, would have
married me and my poverty, and de-
fed all her relatives, if l had permitted
her to make such q sacrifice.
II was quite fond of her, as men of
sensibility and gallantry usually are of
women who love them devotedly, and
the fact that could not make her my
wife rendered our relation more poetics
than it would have been had we been
engaged. She was rather delicate aud
her friends feared she had pulmonary
affection. She tho ught she would not
live long, and the day we sat together
here she looked pale and more lovely
than ever. The autumn leaves were
falling round us, and with her head
leaning on my breas t, she said, with
tears in her eyes: i feel, darling, that
am dying. 1 believe that the next
years leaves will strew my grave.
But shall rest sweetly i'll can dream
in Heaven that you still love me, dear
est ..-.
"My heart was touched as 1t never
was before" my friend added. 81 fan
cied ut that moment that loved Ter
devotedly. was tempted to say, BE
mine, darling, before the world. II we
love each other, We shall have wealth
enough, and contentment that fortune
cannot buy But | remembered the
day would come when neither of us
would feel SO; that 10 passion, however
ardent, can survive meagre breakfasts,
and cold potatoes at dinner. So l kissed
her tendcrly; dried the dew of her
tears on the rose leaves Of my lips Il
was sentimental then); and told her
she would be some mans lovely wife
when I was at supper after Polonius'
fashion.
"She looked sad rebuke at this, and
shed more tears, which | kissed away
again, and we wandered into less lugu-
brious themes.
Eve retained our sentimental attach
mcnt until the war broke out. | went
to the field, and after few letters our
correspondence ceased.
When the struggled was over, l came
home and one of the first carriages that
l noticed in the Park contained my
ouondam inamorata, q middle aged
man, rather vulgar, though very pros
porous looking and two bouncing chill
dren in charge of French Irish bonnie.
One glance told Inc the whole story.
perceived that the sentimental drama
had ended as comedy, with marriage,
and | laughed, as had often done be-
fore under similar circumstances, at the
prose denouement of the rose-cOlorcd
episode. | learned few days after that
my sweet Saloma had accepted a hus-
band of her parents selection, who had
made fortune by a government con-
tract, and who did not know whether
Dante was Dane or n Dutchman, and
certainly did not care.
81 was glad she had done so well, and
pladder that | had not been unwise
enough to make her matrimonially mis-
cradle. drank glass of wine at din
ner every day for week to her connu-
b ial happiness-it was barely necessary
to toast her health then-and, meeting
her at the opera fortnight after, she
my face, but had forgotten
my name-the name of the man she
had vowed she loved better than her
own self, and who was all this world to
her, and something more.
"Womeu are fine rhetoricians," re-
marked my friend, ''but think they
place a small estimate upon the world
and their own souls."-Ne,p York cor
,..snoud,Df of the Chicd1O Times