The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-05-04

or four timesa week, she would have
been unite easy about his coming. The
snrinSs would not have been weighted
40 heavily, and her heart would have
been elastic.
No doubt she had forgotten many of
the circumstances of his visit and of his
departure. Immediately Non his going
she had told Der sister that he would
certainly come again, but had said at
the same time that his coming could be
of no use. He-was so poor man; aud
she-though poorer than he-had been
so little accustomed to poverty of life,
that she had then acknowledged to her.
self that she was not fit to be his wife.
Gradually, as the slow weeks went by
her, there had come q change in her
ideas. She now thought that he never
would come again, but that If he did,
she would confess to him that her OVID
ideas about life were changed. II
would tell him frankly that could eat
a crust with him in any garretin Lon
DOM But this was said to herself, never
to her sister. Emily and Mrs. Clubhouse
had determined together that it would
be wise to abstain from all mention of
Huph Stanbury's name. Nora had felt
that her sister had so abstained, and
this reticence had assisted in producing
the despair which had come upon her.
Hugh, when he had left her, had certain
" given her encouragement to expect
that he would return. She had been
sure then that he would return. She
had been sure of it, though she had told
him that it would be useless. But now,
when these sad weeks had slowly crept
over her head, when during the long
hours of the long days she had thought
of him continually,-telling herself that
it was impossible that she should ever
become the wife of any man if she did
not become his,-she assured herself
that she had seen and heard the last of
him. She must surely have forgotten
his hot words and that daring embrace.
Then there came letter to her. The
question of the management of letters
for young ladies is handled very differ
emily in different houses. In some es-
adjustments the post is as free to young
ladies as it is to the reverend seniors of
the household. In others. it is consid-
cred to be quite matter of course that
some experienced discretion should sit
in Judgment on the correspondence of
the daughters of the family. When
Nora Rowley was living with her sister
in Curzon street, she would have been
very indignant indeed, had it been sug
gested to her that there was any author
ity over her letters vested in her sister.
But now, circumstanced as she was at
St. Diddulph's, she did understand that
no letter would reach her without her
aunt knowing that it had come. All
this was distasteful to her,-as even in
deed all the details of her life at ST..
Diddulph's,-but she could not hell her
self. Had her aunt told her that she
should never be allowed to receive a
letter at all, she must have submitted
till her mother had come to her relief.
The letter which reached her now was
put into her hands by her sister, but it
had been given to Mrs. Treyelyan, by Mrs.
Outheuse. "Nora," said Mrs. Trevelyan,
from Mr.. Stanbury."
"Give it me, said Nora, greedily.
"Of course / will give it you. But /
hope you do not intend to correspond
with him."
eff he has written to me, shall answer
him, of course" said Nora, holding her
treasure.
"Aunt Mary thinks that you should
not de so till papa and mamma have ar
rived"
"If Aunt Mary is afraid of me, let her
tell me so, and | will cOntrive to 60
somewhere else" Poor Nora knew that
this threat was futile. There was no
house to which she could take herself.
"She is not afraid of you at all, Nora.
She only says that she thinks you should
not write to Mr.. Stanbury." Then Nora
escaped to the cold but solitary seclusion
of her bedroom, and there she read her
letter.
The reader may remember that Hugh
Stanbury, when he last left st. Did
dulph's, had not been oppressed by any
of the gloomy reveries of a despairing
lover. He had spoken his mind freely
to Nora, and had felt himself justified in
believing that he had not spoken in
vain. He had had her il his arms, and
she had found itimpossible to say that
she did not love him. But then she had
been quite firm in her purpose to give
him no encouragement that she could
avoid. She had sad no word that would
Justify him in considering that there
was any engagement between them,
and, moreover, he had been warned
not to come to the house by its
mistress. From day to day he thought
of it all, now telling himself that there
| 81 hn l,,t 20
in her fidelity till he should be in a
position to offer her fitting home,
and then rejecting that he could not
expect such girl as Nora Rowley to
wait for him, unless he could succeed in
making her understand that he, at any
rate, intended to wait for her. On one
day he would think that good faith and
proper consideration for Nora herself re-
ouired him to keep silent. On the next
he would tell himself that such maudlin
chivalry as he was proposing to himself
was sure to 60 to the wall and be Meth
or rewarded nor recognized. So at last
he sat down and wrote the following let
ter
LINCoLN's Inn FIELDS, Jan, 1856.
DEAREST NORA:-Ever since | last
saw you at St. Diddulph's, have been
trying to teach myself what l ought to
do in reference to you. Sometimes |
think that because am poor ought to
hold my tongue. At others feel sure
that ought to speak out loud, because
/ love you so dearly. You may presume
that just at this moment the latter opiA-
ion is in the ascendant.
"As do write mean to be very bold,
so bold that if am wrong you will be
thoroughly disgusted with me, and will
never willingly see rue again. But
think it best to be true, and to say
what think. | do believe that you
| love me. According TO all precedeut. |