Litchfield enquirer., 1874-12-17

pr1mise to the person with whom I an living at Eastbourne to return at I. quar- ter past nine clock. '' 7. ' TN1.- -sI
 sfrhe person with whom you ara. .living!' I repeated. ssYoH are living at n board are you not?" =.
 q am living, Miss Grading, under the cars of q doctor, who keeps an asylum fol the insane. He has taken house fol some of his wealthier patients at the sea side. and allows me my liberty in the day time, on the condition that I faithfully perform my promise at night. It is { ,quafter of an hours walk from your house to the. doctors; and it is a rule that tn. patients retire at half-past nine o'clock. sd Here was the mystery that had so sore ly peFPlexed me, revealed at last! Int diseiosure literally struck me speeches. Unponsciously and instinctively drew baek from him few steps He fixed hi. sad eyes on me with 3a touching look O ieufea&fyeai s <s5 g- E3ssaf8L e-zs s-1.A
 Don't shrink 4S1S from ne,,' he said esY0udon' titiiakI | am mad!'S5 -l-- --
 Twas too confused and distressed tt knpd Mhascto say; and, at the same time LH HHass too fond of him not to answer thaI p8aais szI took his hand and pressed i in silences He turned his head aside fol as is8ment9 thought I saw tear on hi, cheek I felt his hand close trembling lOn&mine.. He mastered himself with sur prssing resolution; he spoke with perfect c0mposllre when he looked at me again.
 nDo you care to know my story" he asked, ':after what I have just told you?'
 I ana eager to hear it." answered | Ton don't know how feel for you. ] an foo distressed to, be able to express myself in words" .~.s.ae.-La.G
 You are the kindest and dearest of wo mkkts he said, with the utmost feryor, and at the same time with the utmost respect
 We sat down together ina grassy hol low of the cliff, wittT oaFI faces towards the grand, gray sea. The daylight was beginning to fade, as I heard the story which made me Roland Cameron's wife.
 s:k CHAPTER ". -
 ssMy mother died when, I was an infant in arms he began. My. father, from my earliest to my latest recollections, was always hard towards. me. have been told that I was an odd child, with strange ways of my own. My father detested any. thing shat was strongly marked, anything out of the ordinary way in the characters and habits of those about him. He him. self lived, as the phrase is, by line and rule. and he determined to make his son fQHow his example. I was subjected to severe discipline at school, and I was care fully watched at college. Looking back on my early life, can see no traces ot happiness. I can find no tokens of sym pathy. Sad submission to hard destiny, weary wayfaring over unfriendly roads, such is the story of my life from ten years old to twenty. ,--,.. 7. .... ..- -........- ..-
 passed one Autumn vacation at the Cumberland lakes, and there I met by ac- cident young French lady. The resnlt of that meeting decided my whole after
 She filled the position of nursery gover- ness ID the house of wealthy English man. had frequent opportunities oi seeing her. We took an innocent pleas ure III each others ssciety. Her little ex- perienee sef hfe .was strangely like mine; there vas perfect sympathy of thought and feeling hetween us. We loved, o1 thought we loved I was not tweaty-one, and she was not eighteen, when asked her to be my wife. -.4-s I-%-
 can understand my folly now, and can laugh at it or lament over 1t as the humor moves me. And yet I can't help plying myself, when look back at my self at that time-I was so young. so hun. efy for a little sympathy, SO weary of an empty, friendless life. We'll. everything is comparative in this world. I was soon to regret, bitterly regret, tEat friendless life, wretcaed as 1t WAS. .E I
 1.-The poor girl S employer discovered our attachment, through his wife. He at once communicated with my father.
 My father had but one word to say he insisted On my going abroad, and leav. ing 1t to him to release me from my ab- surd engagement In my absence. l an- swered him that should be of age In a few months. and that was determined to marry the girl. He gave me three days to reconsider that resolution. I held to my resolution. In a. week afterwards I was declared insane by two medical men. and l was placed by my father ill Iuna- tic asylum. - --.--.
 ''Was 1t an act of insanity for the son of gentleman, with great expectations be- fore him, to propose marriage to a nurse ry goYerness? I declare, as heaven is my witness, I know of no other act of mine which could justify my father, and justify the doctors, ID placing me under restraint.
 7"I was three years in that asylum. It was officially reported that the air did not agree with me. I Was removed, for years more, to another asylum, in re- mote part of England. For the five best years of my life I have been herded with madmen-and my reason has survived it. The impression l produce on you. on your father, on your brother, ,on all our friends at this picnic, Is that I am as reasonable as the rest of my fellow-creatures. Am I rushing to hasty conclusion when I as- sert myself to be now, and always to have been, sane man? -------g 7
 atAt the end of my five years of arbitra- Y Imprisonment in free country, happi- ly for mel am ashamed to say ii. but | must speak the truth happily for me, my merciless father died. His. trustees. to whom | vas consigned. felt some pity for me. They could not take the responsi- bllity of granting me my freedom. But they placed me under the care of a sur geon, who received me into his private resideuees and who allowed me free exer- clse Tn the open air. EaEGaCe
 year Ofidf or tillS mode of life sat- isfied the surgeon, and satisfied every one else who taok tine smallest interest in me- that I was perfectly fit to enjoy my liber- ty. l was freed from all restraint, and was permitted to reside with near rela- tive of ralne. ia that very lake country which had bean the scene Of my fatal meeting with the French girl six years be- fore.
 CHAPTER v
 "I lived happily in the house of ny rel atiFas satisfied with the ordinary pursuits of asicounfry gentleman. Time had long since cusedeme of my boyish infatuation for the nursery goyerness. | could re visit with perfect composure the paths along which we had walked, the lake on which we had sailed together. Hearing by chance that she was married in hel own country, I could wish her all possi. ble happiness, with the sober kindness of a disinterested friend What strange thread Of irony runs through the texture of the simplest human hfet The early love for which had sacrificed and suffer. ed so much was now revealed to me. in all its true eolors, as boy,s passing fan. cy; tnothing more. = -G -S-, 1oSz