The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-08-12

II
Some time passed thus, but George,
who knew that every moment was
lprecious, was the first to regain some
degree of self possession. and pleaded
his cause with all the eloquence Of a
full heart. He urged piteously for
an Immediate marriage, and that his
wife should go with him, if she would
consent to such sacrifice for his
sake; but Monsieur de 10 Faille, who
had by this time recovered the use of
his faculties, gently but firmly 81
lenced Clemence's passionate assent
to this appeal, and would not for a
moment listen to proposal which
would separate him so suddenly
from his only child, and send her,
so young and inexperienced, thou
sands of leagues from her native
land, to climate which was then be-
lieved to be nothing less than fatal,
and exposed to the probability of
either being left widow without
safety or protector, or of herself
dying so far from her father and her
friends. he would not hear Georges
agonized entreaties, and the young
man was at last compelled to see that
this hope. at least, would never be
realized; but rs his despair was fertile
in expedients, his next pre- position
was that he should ut once resign his
commission, and leave the army.
On this point the magistrate was
quite as decided as he had been on
the first. He argued that it was
only the temporary madness of a
young lover in the first anguish of
disappointed hope-he would not
sanction any such step; and, to
guarantee himself against seeming to
do SO, he declared that if George
voluntarily forfeited his career, he
must also forfeit Clemence; he (Mon-
sieur de la Faille) would never con-
sent to incur such a responsibility in
the eyes of Georges family, and he
was sure that in the time to come,
George himself would be the first to
repent having yielded to such IN
impulse. AS n last hold on her
whom he SO dearly loved, Georges
next idea was that he should marry
Clemence, but that she should re-
main with her father until her hus-
bands return, which was expected to
take place in two years at the ut
most. But here also Monsieur de la
Faille was infexible; he had made
up his mind to course which he
believed to be right, and no prayers,
no arguments. could move him. He
represented to the lovers that, being
both so young, two years were as
nothing in their lives; and, moreover,
this interval of absence would prove
whether their love for each other
were deep, lifelong sentiment, or
one of those ephemeral fancies which
end in Indifference and even dislike.
In short, he labored to convince
both himself and the lovers that this
separation was of all things the one
he most desired.
George saw that his last hope had
failed like the others, and at length
ceased his endeavors to overcome
Monsieur de la Faille's manifold
objections. AS for Clemence, she
saw she could do nothing but suffer
and submit, and she tried to believe
that those miserable two years would
make her faithful love so much the
more dear and precious to her lover.
Monsieur de Ia Faille was no doubt
quite justified in making and ad-
herring to his resolution, but he was,
after all, a stupid man, and had
doubtless forgotten his own youth; !;
for it never entered into his imagina-
ton than those two unhappy beings
must have thousand last words to
say to each other, which must re-
main unsaid if he remained there
and refused them one last parting
interview, where, alone with each
other, they might ask and receive the
last VOWS which would be so much to
them in the weary days of waiting
and absence. The worthy man had
not the least suspicion that he could
be in the way, and sat on, miserable
indeed at the misery he beheld, but
never dreaming of leaving them
alone together.
George remained seated near Gle
monce, choking with words which he
could not say to any ear but hers,
and gazing at her as those look who
feel that every look may be the last.
The minutes passed too quickly; he
knew he must go, and he rose sud