The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1874-04-16

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il lose you now than later; sureness
and repose will but deepen my love
for you. do not want TO bind you;
} only want to feel that you are caps-
bic Of loving me freely, as / love you.
J You can tell me this. My whole
heart is in this letter.
Your own always,
ELEANOR
1 Walters answer had been as fol-
lows, and-but let the letter come
first:
"My own, my dearest: can an
swer you with one word. love you
with all my power, as entirely as you
can love me. Your love is more per-
} feet because you are yourself more
perfect-more justly balanced; but /
love you as q mortal man may love-
and will live always by your ideal,
trusting to grow more like it day by
day. am so paralyzed by your let
ter that my words desert me. have
only two or three very simple ones,
but they seem to be coined out of my
hearts blood. 1 love you. I will be
true TO you. I tremble-who would
not, who possessed q soul?-when
you hold out q treasure unmatched
on earth, and say, Can you guard
this against the world, and answer for
its safetyP fall on my knees, my
darling, and bow my head. am not
worthy-Who is worthy of you ?-but
/ love you. 1 will be true to you.
Lay thy sweet hands in mine and
trust to me- I shall leave here as
soon as is possible, but fear not for
ten days. would rather you did not
write to me. 1 will wait to hear my
fate in spoken words.
1 am your own, all your own,
w. G."
She was waiting for him that even
ing Of which we have spoken, and in
q few moments more the door would
have been reached, when Gordon felt
q hand laid on his shoulder as he
strobe rapidly along, and q familiar
voice sounded In his ear. "Why,
Walter, when did you come to town
and where are you going% 1t was
Charley Haughton's voice, man
whom Walter knew and liked moder-
ately well. The men whom one meets
-on first emerging from months abb
sence in the country are apt, II only
scquaintances, to be for the moment
elevated into friends, and one greets
them with that overflow Of cordiality
that results from the temporary DAMN
ing up Of ones superficial sympathies.
They represent not only themselves,
but the collected essence Of social life,
all the past and prospective, OF clubs
bathrooms, and dinner parties, and
they are clothed with an attraction
not their own. So Gordon shook
hands warmly with Haughton, to
whom his usual greeting had been q
goOd-natured "How do, HaughtOn ?"
and slackened his pace. As they
walked together and talked over the
news, q few moments brought them
to the clubhouse whittier Haughton
was bound.
"Come in"
fNo, thank you. I'll come In later.
Just now cannot"
"WelI, don't make it too late, or
you'll miss hearing about Miss Man.
ming, the new beauty all the men
are wild about her; she's a regular
siren, sings and all the rest of it. Pm
not poetical, you know, but, by Jove,
she does make one think of-what's
that German name-the woman that
sings the fisherman of the rocks and
into the water?'
"Lorelei, you mean"
"Yes, that's it. De Vany and Pier
son dine with her tonight and are to
tell us about her, and believe there
is to be 3 wager of some kind laid
about her. But come back before
eleven, anyhow"
"I will,h laughed Gordon as he
sprang down the steps. A few minutes
brought him to the door, and his heart
as he loved to feel 1t, when he rang
the bell. He should see her soon, and
the current of feeling swept through
his soul and carried everything before
it. In another moment he was alone
with Eleanor. Walter was q nat
ural actor; he had just the drop of
Gallic blood that leads one to make
dramatic point rather than sup
press it, as is the Anglo-SaxOn in
stinct. When he closed the door be-
hind him, he stood still, his eyes bent
down. 1t was his impulse to do so,
though he knew that Eleanor's heart
had spoken in his favor and that she
was ready to be clasped in his arms.
1t gave him an additional culver of
emotion, factitious though it was, and
he could not fOrego it. 1t was as just
a calculation as il it had not been an
| impulsive one. In 3 moment more
she spoke: g" thought you would
never come but why are you stand
ing there :"
He raised his eyes and saw her, ra-
dfant, fair, and pure, robed in white,
all fragrance and sweetness, standing
by his side. At that moment his
whole heart went out to her, and as
he held her to his heart and pledged
himself to her by every VOW he could
make words convey, and looks more
eloquent than words, he was as Who'll
ly hers as she could wish.
| The hours went by swiftly, and
Walter and Eleanor took no note Of
their flight. The slight shock of the
past week seemed to have aroused In
both of them q keener sense Of the
preciousness Of their love; and while
| Walter had never seemed so earnest,
so true and Eleanor's eyes, she in her
turn appeared to him to have become
hundred-fOld more prodigal Of
words which he well knew were each
one coined from the pure, unalloyed
gold of her heart.
as il not good of people not to have
come here tonight 2" said Eleanor, as
the clock struck ten; sand now I am
so happy, for it is too late for any one
to come"
'sToo late ?p said Walter, glancing
at the clock. "What, ten O'Clock al
ready!n His words recalled to him
Haughton's parting injunction, and
an absurd, unaccountable feeling Of
shamefacedness came over him, as
the impulse to leave Eleanor came
with the recollection. Why Is it that
to q nature like hers, love always
brings with il the desire to have every
impulse and desire OF its beloved one
brought into subjectiop and amena-
ble to its influence p That the first
and strongest desire OF such q heart
should be to deprive the creature 1t su-
premely loves Of all independence, Of
all individuality upon which its seal
marking royAlty's possession must be
branded by every act and feeling; and
just in proportion to this desire is
awakened by it in heart like Wal
ter's-wayward, untamed, with an
Imaginative, passionate temperament
IAN impulse to stray ana wander
away in strange pathways, picking
flowers at rs will.
He could not bring himself TO say
simply, "My dearest, promised
Charley Haughton to meet him at
the club at ten," because he felt that
il would oe an equivocation and SO
worse than q cOncealment. Miss
Manning's name, and the few words
HaughtOn had uttered in connection
with it, had made Walter desirous of
hearing more of her. That was the
truth. She saw that he was musing
over something and playfully chal-
lenged his reverie. He reused him
self and talked, but not as before, and
she felt the imperceptible change. A
half hour went by, and then be rose
and said he must leave her then; he
had thoughtlessly promised to meet q
man at the club, and must keep his
word. She said nothing, as it was
her won't when little disturbed, but
bade him q tender goodnight, while
he threw a greater impressment into
his farewell, for he had q sense OF re-
morse come over him st his impulse
to leave her. Indeed, he would then
have staid, could he have done SO
without his behavior appesriuQ unac-