Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1871-1872, 1871-09-08

he subject. "Did l love q woman / would
ell her so at Once-whether I were poor or
'ioh, prosperous or hopeless, whether we
could be married next month, next year, or
not for the next twenty years. If she iOveo
rs l her, it would be no matter, we oouio
wait. And mean lime I shonld give neF my
love to rest onto receive the help and
consolation of hers. I would like her to
feel that through ell chances And changes
abe and I we're one. one neither for foolish
child's play nor hesdlong passion, but for
our mutual strength and support, holding
o,,,e,vss responsible to Heaven and esch
other fer our lives and our ! owe. One
iudissolably, whether we we're ever married
or not one in this world, and-we pray
one in the world everlasting These words
we're rot written then, or they would have
sunk deep into my sonl and reclaimed me,
I have only very lately read them, and they
goAd me to write this confession. To re
sumo my hateful task, The following even
ing, when he was not there, l sought her
side, and with q veil masked voice began to
lAud my friend. Poor fool She might
have suspected something when | began TO
praise him. I saw that beneath her pleasure
at nv adulation, there lurked a raw soreness
of some kind and | / knew, or guessed, from
what cause, from what | had seen and heard
the previous evening. "Miss RENE" said
| "NeRie. l know you belong so nearly to
Joe-did you ever know what i, was to have
al aching hesrt?h
Yes-no! hardly know what you mean
by an aching heart
FtFrue, the question is rather vague l
mean a patient, loving, and Trusting heart,
turned to bitter wornwood from the though,
that some one WAC processes to love you is
simply deeeiviug you out of kindness who
thought he-or She added 1, parentheti.
oAlly, loved you, but found, after a while
that they loved another more, and were
clearly expressed but the question is Of nc
moment" I watched her kseuly, for,
knowing her as / did, I knew tina place
where it would be best to strike. Often ia
the silent solitude of my chamber, in the
dark night never feared the dark have
dreamed and thought how, if l could but
separate those two, that would make the
end Justify the means that l would console
her, that she would marry me and that by
a life devoted to her, l would make her love
me, and then | would tell her all, and she
would bless me for it. Oh, how l would
love her! L'homme propose, mails Dieu dis
pose. I watched her keenly, as I put the
question, purposely in a dispSssionste tone
4 shade came over her face as she made
some evssive answer. A shade which after
wards grew on her lovely face at shorter and
shorter intervals, until at last it settled there
never to go away.
We we're walking in the same mesdoEplOt
aud had halted temporarily JUS; st the spoI
where / had overheard the conversation o
las, night, probably she remembered it, fol
she wss silent for some time as we walked
on. Did you ever know what it was Il
aave al aching heart, Mr.. Westiy? sd,
asked after a long pause, ''Call me Harold,
said /. al like that name better than The
formal Mr. Did l ever! Well, perhaps
| may have done said I, thinking of my
own heart at that moment, "but I was no
thinking OF myself"
of whom then ?"
! looked her steadily in the face, aut
answered II have no right 10 talk of such
things to you whose heart must beso happy
Perhaps there was "a slight bitterness in ny
sons s. | said these words; perhaps she
. noticed II for she replied, somewhat petu
emily. No! gou are always thinking o.
n.her people !" then, sinking her voice
You know, Harold, i: is 10 you that Joe
and l sre indebted for our ~eugsge-for GU
acquainIAnce. Bot Of whom are you think
ing Il Is = pleasure to me to sympathizt
With others sorrows. wheu I an so-whel
/ have none OF my own"
Ny answer was masked, like the rest O
she language used TO her then. 1t hurt
me now, much more than I thought il wouit
when / began this, to call back to my
memory, wildly as yesterday, the words
used to instil poison into the mind of tha
passionate and susceptible girl. Joe wal
ola very cold nature, and I should think tba
10 donbt him would be TO believe il, for he
was proud and would not bend to explain
Let i, suffice TO say that, under q close sea.
of secrecy, I let her draw from me a seeming
unwilling tale of his iufdelity. Then, o.
course, I was shocked at myself for having
been led TO tell it, and called myself al tbt
i'll names | could think of, when, on recover
ing her composure, with q blank, ~starin.
look apon her face, she said something tina
| call to mind now as having resembIed tn
despsi.ing lament Of "He that is robbed
not wanting what is stolen, let him not kno,
it, and he's not robbed at ell. Oh, no,
FOR ever farewell the tranquil mind" 81
Bnt when the Moor was thus sorely troublat
in his mind, he required ''the proofs p Thes
she did not seem TO think of. It was emo ug
Tor her to doubt. Had he not, she said, re
fused to saiisfy her last night, when the
had talksd-is must have been about this
loved her then more madly than ever
aud could scarcely refrain from saying 81
and pouring out my love in one long. "a,
siona,e food. But no, that would spoil all
I reflected on their short acquaintance en-
tho't their love to be only skin deep. True
she had known him such a short time! Ii,
tho handsome Joe Agar, courted and hatte,
=, ed by al women. Ii must be true, OF
shank you Harold ~ Poor child. She di
not know the root which that love had take,
' in her very existence nor did l. But whe
saw i: afterwards, it was to late.
TO BE CONTINUED.