The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-09-25
RUDDERLEss.
CONCLUDED.

noNnrupEp. - a., Is
Did she not? Mans little heart,
though it certainly beat fast, was
scarcely, i think, throbbing with
surprise. And Cavendish corrugated
the most popular of verbs, always,
however, in the first person singular.
And. Nan walked beside him, with
her ungloved hand white on his arm,
and her sweet eyes lowered, and all
the dimples round her mouth imper-
-ceptible- left behind, perhaps, in
the charge of Mr.. Popham. Present
ly, ,Cayendish finished up, in the
same manner in which he had been
going on all through dearest. F"
He had made her an offer which,
prosaically rendered, was an intima-
tion that he possessed nothing, never
had possessed anything, did not
much think he ever should possess
anything of sufficient magnitude to
enable him to support young wife;
still, without binding herself to him
in any way, would Nan give to him
grounds for hope? Vague, perhaps,
but where would Mans delicate per-
ceptions have been, if, OF this mo-
ment, she had failed to understand
him?
And now, I am expected to unravel
Mans secret. It were beyond me.
Any ordinary mortal would have
said that she loved him. Cavendish
thought 80, and even Nan herself,
yet we Judge from results. But it is
not fair now thus to look forward
into the future. Cavendish did. not
do SO, nor did Nan. At his first
word, Dearest" Mans whole heart
was stirred; that loving, unstable
heart, that so many were longing to
gain, though Heaven only knows
whether the magical word, pro-
nounced by Mr.. Popham, would not
have had much the same effect. At
last, when they separated, they were
neither of them, they said. in any
way bound. Poor Cavendiehl Not
bound? He was bound, at least, to
o shipwrecked life, whether he for
ever remained constant to Nan, or
whether in his manhood he found
there not sufficient to satisfy what
ever in himself was true, and So.
marrying later some one fer more
worthy, would yet have lost his first
:, sweet conception of woman in the
last look he took of poor Nan.
Ah, Nan, why were your gifts so
many. if you, foolish, could only
thus use them? The love of your
mother for Ashley had sanctified
. both their lives. Cavendish, at
night, alone and musing: Darling
little Nan, what would L not give to
be able to call her mine now?"
Quite right, Cavendish. Had that
been SO. then might both of your
lives have been different. Nan would
most certainly have been true to her
husband, though it is open to cues
ton whether she would ever have
turned into another Eve. Still, I am
not at all prepared to say that for
"Cavendish Nan would not have been
sufficient. He would have been
something cut of the common vino
would not have been satisfied with
Nan at her best.
Eve, when she heard of what had
occurred, was at once in o tumult of
emotions. Cavendish, in her mind,
was not equal to her husband, thai
had so long now been dead. This
granted, was it not sad that Nan
must put up with anything that was
thus proved to fall short of perfec.
tion? But this suggestion, when
limited at to Nan, by. no means met
with her approval "Good gracious
me, mamma, am sure he is good
enough in all conscience. 1 dom
know how many thousand times bet.
ter than me already" That was not
saying very much, but Nan was
always to Eve young Ashley's daueh.
ter. and his virtues were supposed tc
have descended, though pefhan,
even Eve perceived they had lessened
lin the descent. Nan looked as If she
thought her mother unkind, and Eve
took her child in her arms, and sane
to her Caysndish'e praises, the sweet
est of ail lullabies to the girl. y
Bat now this story, that should rur
so straight, swerves and diverge,