Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-04-19
The Story of Two Lovers.

Twenty-six years ago, James Sander
son, a respectable person residing in
the Scottish Hebrides, then verging on
40 years, made court to a girl some 16
years of age and was accepted but a
rival much younger interfered, and
bore off the prize. This made Sander
son feel revengeful and the girls new
lOverhaving been engaged in smuggling,
Sanderson informed upon him, and he
had to leave the islands, to which he
never came back. The people were so
violent against Sanderson that he, too,
was forced to leave, but had married
before doing so, his wife being taken
to spite his old mistress, who had not
got married.
Arriving on the American Pacific
coast in safety, he bought large tract
of land few miles north of Fort Lang
ley, and devoted himself to its agricul-
tural development with so much energy
and skill that a few years made him
comparatively wealthy. Better than
this, however, the new life brought with
it such endearment of the woman whom
he had welded without other love than
he had been able to simulate for her
deception, that the increase of their
children was his conversion into the
fondest of husbands +; and when, in 1861
he became widower, he remained so
ten years, when he sent home to sis
ter in the Hebrides to engage a wife for
him. His old flame was selected, and
said she was willing to go to him whom
she had Tilted twenty-five years before.
From the time of her second lover S
hasty fight under the denunciation OF
his enemy, the smuggler's sweetheart
had never heard of that individual
again ; and the lapse of time and the in
creasing burdens of her lowly estate
made her much less imperious at forty
than she was at sixteen. The wealthy
farmer of British Columbia sent hel
ample means for her outfit and voyage,
and the long voyage was accomplished
without incident as far as San Francisco.
From the latter city she was to proceed
up the coast to her destination on a
steamer in which passage was specially
secured for her, and while waiting this
vessel she was seen and recognized at q
hotel by the accepted lover of her youth,
who had been in California ever since
his untimely departure from Hebrides.
There was dramatic meeting, long
story on either side, and-alas, for the
waiting widower-a full revival of the
old love.
Both lovers, however, were much
sobered by the discipline of maturel
years and the lady, having explained
by whose wish and means she was il
America, declared that she must go on.
ward as she had promised, and fulfill
her engagement if it was still exacted
She would faithfully tell all to him who
awaited her at the end of her journey
confess that she could never love hin
now as she had lately thought possible
and abide by his own decision. If he
yet claimed her he must be obeyed il
not she would return to San Francisco
AS the story ends with her reappear
ance in the California city few days
ago, and quiet marriage there to the
former smuggler, it may be inferred
that the Columbian widower was al
once sensible and magnanimous under
his last disappointment, and finally
proved himself the friend of the woman
with whom fate had twice denied hin,
a nearer, dearer relationship.