Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-11-16

gratitude was to pay it, even at the cost
of her life. Yet even the good will OF
one type of man to a woman is often al
misfortune. Her soul may be white as
snow; yet he cannot take her innocent
name upon his lips without smircSing 1t
with somewhat of his own viieness- his
vanity has been hattered by idle women,
till conquest has become not only the
habit, but the necessity, of bis morbid and
miserable soul; till, where he knows he
has not won it. he yet is base enough to
boast OF it, Such a man JudQing by
every record left of him) was Rufus w.
Griswold. He was q man of poetic tenn.
permanent, of fine scholarship, of generous
impulses, and in certain directions of rare
gifts yet no less he was man of tickle
fancies, of violent temper, which often
fell upon his dearest friends of monstrous
vanity, and of ungoverned passions.
was never engaged to him in marriage: l
never loved him. said Alice Gary to me.
L could not have loved such man, though
I learned him in his best phases. l came
to pity him, because he was his own worst
enemy. As a friend owe him much, and
before his death 1 found it in my power
to pay back in part my large debt OF graft
tude. When he returned to New York,
poor and sick, with certain death before
him, I, with Miss -, hired room and
nurse for him. From that they have made
the romantic story of my nursing him for
unrequited love. 1t was old Betsey who
nursed him. You know how big and
strong she is; yet even she became worn
ont, for his sickness was long and very
painful. Many unkind, even cruel things
have been said because be willed to me
his personal eff.cts Besides tbs books
and pictures which he bequeathed to the
Historical Society, these were all that he
possessed, and he left them to me not
more out of personal regard than from
desire to repay as far as he was able the
money which I had expended for bis COM
fort during his long sickness In the pro-
foundest sense Alice Carey never loved
but once. The man whom she loved is
still alive; yet gossip, with its keenest
scent, has never found or named him.
With all her fullness of affection, hers was
an eclectic and solitary soul. He who,
by the very patent of his being. was more
to her than any other mortal could be,
might PASS from her life, but no other
could ever take his place. A proud and
prosperous family brought all their pride
and power to bear on sou to prevent his
marrying girl uneducated, rustic and
poor 4 waited for ono who never came
back she said, yet believed he would
come until read in paper his marriage
to another. Can you think what life
would believing one, waiting for one
who would never come ! He did come
OF las+ saw him His VITA had died
Alice was dying. The gray-haired man
sat down beside the gray-haired woman.
Life had dealt prosperously with him, as
is its wont with men. Suffering and
death had taken all from bar save the lus-
ter of her wondrous eyes. From her wan
and wasted face they shone upon him full
of tenderness and youth. Thus they met
with life behind them-they who parted
plighted lovers when life was young. He
was the man whom she forgave for her
blighted and weary life, with smile OF
parting as divine as ever lit the face of
woman.