Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-03-19

of women! he said, with the utmost
feFvor, and at the same time with
the utmost respect.
We sat down together in gras-
sy hollowof the cliff, with our faces
towards the grand, gray sea. The
daylight was beginning to fade, as
heard the story which made me
Roland Cameron's wife.
".
l. My mother died when / was an
infant in arms, he began. My ia
ther, from my earliest to my latest
recollect1ons, was always hard to-
wards me. Ihave been told that ]
was an odd child with strange ways
of my own. Ny father detested
anything that was strongly marked,
anything out of the ordinary way
in the characters and habits
of the persons about him. He
himself lived las the phrase is) by
line and rule, and he determined to
make his son follow his example. ]
was subject to severe discipline at
school, and I was carefully watched
afterward at college. Looking back
on my early life, 1 can see no traces
of happiness. / can find no tokens
of sympathy. Sad submission to a
hard destiny, weary, wayfaring over
unfriendly roads-such is the story
of my life from ten years old to
twenty.
l passed one vacation at the Cum
berland Lakes-and there l met by
accident a young French lady. The
result of that meeting decided my
whole after life.
She filled the position of nursery
goYerness in the house of a wealthy
Englishman. Ihad frequent oppor-
tunities of seeing her. We took an
innocent pleasure in each others So
ciety. Her little experience of life
was strangely like mine; there was
a perfect thought and feeling be-
tween us. We loved, or thought
we loved. 1 was twenty, one and
she was not eighteen, when 1 asked
her to be my wife. -
/ can understand my folly now,
and can laugh att or lament over
it as the humor moves me. And
yet, cannot help pitying myself,
when / look back at myself at that
time-I was so young and hungry
for a little sympathy so weary of
my dry endless life. WE'LL every
thing is comparative in this world.
was soon to regret, bitterly to
regret, that friendless life, wretched
as it was. @ le4ast. -as. III s
The poor girls employer discov7
cred our attachment through his
wife. He at once communicated
with my father. asaa Zss,
Ny father had but one word to
say-he insisted on my going abroad
and leaving it to HIM to release me
from my absurd engagement in my
absence. answered that should
be of age in few months, and that
1 was determined to marry the girl,
He gave me three days to reeensid-
er that resolution. / held to nay
resolution. In week afterwards I
was declared insane by two medical
men, and / was placed by my father
in lunatic asylum.
Was it an act of insanity for the
son of a gentleman, with great ex-
pectations before him, to propose
marriage to a nursery goyerness2 /
declare, as heaven is my witness, i
know of no other act of mine which
could Justify my father, and Justify
the doctors, in placing me under re-
straint. r.r .a 81 he.-s
Twas three years in an asylum. It
was officially reported that the air
did not agree with me was re-
moved for two years more, to an
other asylum, in a remote part of
England. For five years of my life
I have been herded with madmen-
and my reason has survived it. The
impression I produce on you, on
your father or your brother, on all
our friends at the picnic, is that /
am as reasonable as the rest of my
fellow creatures. Am l rushing to
hasty conclusion whenI assert
myself to be now, and always to
have been a sane manP
At the-end of my FIVE years of ar
bitrary imprisonment in free eOun7.
try, happily for me- am ashamed
to say it but I must speak the truth
happily for me, my merciless ia
ther died. His Trustees, to whom /
was consigned, felt some pity for
me. They could not take the re-
sponsibility of granting me my free
dom. But received me to his pri-
vate residence, and who allowed me
free exercise in the open air.
A years trial of this new mode of
life satisfied the surgeon, and salts
fed everyone else who took the
smallest interest in me, that l was
perfectly fit to enjoy my liberty. l
was free from all restraint, and was
permitted to reside with a uear rel
ative of mine, in that very lake coan-
try which had been the scene of my
fatal meeting with the French girl
six years ago.
| " '. ".
lived happily in the house OF my
relative. satisfied with the ordinary
pursuits of a country gentleman.
| Time had long since cured me OF my
boyish infatuation for a nursery
Soyerness. l could resist with per
feet composure the paths along
which we had walked, the lake on
which we had sailed together
Hearing by chance that she was
married in her own country, / could
wish her all possible happiness, with
the sober kindness of q disinherited