The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1870-12-07
.AGATHA'S CONFESSION
[From the Home Journal.1

With trembling hand am about to
unlock he stOre-honsc of m mory,
and expose to view corner hitherto
held sacred from the public gaze. If
by so doing, I shall deter one young
and thoughtless person from acting the
part OF a coquettc, or tritiing with the
affections Of a true and manly heart, |
shall not regret the pain it will cost me.
Being of peculiarly nervous tenn
permanent, and having inherited deli
| cate constitution, which the most ten
der and devoted care had failed TO
strengthen, from my earliest years all
excitement had been strictly prohibit
ted. In summer | rarely left my ft-
theirs pleasant country seat at Aspen
Lodge, and in the winter never min
gled in the gayeties of the great city,
where for few months we made our
home. But during my sixteenth year
my constitution underwent n gradual
but decided change. The glow of
health began to mantle my pale checks,
and the warm blood, coursing with re-
newed activity in the sluggish veins,
sent thrill Ike the dawn of a new life
through my iuvigorated frame. My
father hailed the improvement with de-
light. After my mothers death, his
strong affections seemed tocentre upon
me, his youngest child. Though griey-
ed at the sad necessity, he had yielded
implicit obedience to the advice of om
old family physician, and had kept me
as far as possible in quiet and seciu-
sion and now, with corresponding JOY,
he heard the interdict removed. | do
not wish to be understood, however, as
having been hitherto debarred from all
| intercourse with the outside worId.--
Ny father being gentleman of ample
means and the very sonl of hospitality,
our house was seldom without guests.
Ny elder sister, who was the acknowl-
edged hostess of our establishments,
permitted me as an especial favor to
D. b | .r
occupy an obscure corner of the draw
ing-room, and to utter an occasional
aside as my humble. share in the con
versatiOn. TWAS on one of these. oc-
casions that ! first saw John ". He
was about six years my scnoir, tall and
well proportional, and without being
what in common parlance is called
handsome, had a noble presence and a
manly, expressive CONFERENCE.-The
acteristics, which in my eyes far out
| weighed any mere so-called beauty in
the male sex. You have all seen such
faces-fnll of intellect and manly
strength, yet breathing woman's ten
derness. There was a world of intelli-
gence in his dark eyes, and when light
ed up with the fires of thought or
beaming with the imprisoned earnest
ness of youth, l would have challenged
a continent to produce their equal.
Dear John! many years have passed
since the violets first blossomed over
his grave, but every lineament of his
face is as distinctly photographed upon
my memory, as though it were freshly
stamped with all the skill of the lin
ner's art. .., .a.......-.
| ! cannot tell clearly how it was, but
by degrees he sought me out in my
quiet corner, and our first formal &C
quaintance- when, with the ditfidence
of one who had been all her life more
OF less secluded, | answered him in
Observation-Disclosures into a warm
friendship, and then into deeper feel
ing, though still nameiess between us
until at length it grew to be a tact
engagement, and l was never happy
unless by his side. 3a3a
| 1t was an evening in the early par
of June. The drawing-room was full
of company. Ny sister was seated a
the piano, and around her were gath
Tered a gay group listening to snatche