The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-02-19
A sHADoWY LOVE; AND HOW
1T PROVED REAL.

yet 1t occurred to me that there had |
been az least forty-eight hours in the |
day, and as I neared the station was |
sure that my watch was slow, and hur- !
ried at last. So it happened that now |
found myself, heated and out of |
breath, setting down my valise before |
the still closed ticket Office, and the |
great round clock boldly asserting the !
hour to be 10. The train didn't leave |
TIL II. sat down on my valise OPP
PO5ite the clock, and taking from
my breast.poeket note, occupied my
self with reading it and thinking It
over. 1 will not be rash enough to say
how many times I had read it before.
nor how many interpretations had put
up)n its simple words.
Your letter came TO me- Yesterday.
Ny Only surprise was that it found me
unable to give you an answer. What
shall say? Perhaps face to face the
difficulty would seem less. do not
understand myself. Can you have
patience with me and forgive me if in
the end l hurt one who has been my
true friend ?"
That was all. There was no begin
ming or end, no signature. There was
a rush of people, and I was half con-
seiOus of being dragged and shouIdered
and pushed into car while I held a
ticket In one hand and my valise in the
other. There was an empty seat near
the window, toward which a weighty
old lady in spetacles and a green veil
drove me, and occupied it with me.
The even beat of the moving cars seemed
saying the words of the note over and
over, chopping them up, and changing
the pronunciation. The n onotOnY of
thIn hoH q a0nkHsVrr
cited nerves, and for the first time since
the writing of the letter which had
brought this note in ans yer to me I was
able to look back upon the whole story
of my love.
Quite as II it wore tale in a book, I
began at the time when accepted Mr..
DeIancey's invitation to his country
seat for fCrtnigit's trout fishing as a
recreation and rest from my scientific
studies before [ went abroad. I don't
know what relation Mr.. Delancey's late
wife had been to me. 1t was one of
those distraoting problems of geneaIogy
chiefly concerning great-grandmothers
but she had always treated me as a
cousin, which, as she was q very charm
ing woman, was pleasing to me. It was
little dull without her there, for mine
host was not an intellectual man, and
very worldly, and Julia, his only child,
Was but fifteen, innocent, ignorant,
pretty, but too plump. She used to
accompany me sometimes when /
hshed but was too shy TO talk. Her
chef powers seemed to lie in walking.
so that really had thought very little
about her till one day when 1 found
her crying and inquired the cause OF
her misery.
Papa is going to make me marry
that silly, ugly Mr.. Norris, and go away
with him to his big town house."
"What for %
al don't know"
docs he love you? ?"
She dried her tears, looked up at me,
then blushing, laughed and covered her
face with her plump hands: 81 sup
pose he does.
And you don't like him in spite of
his fine town-house ?"
She didn't answer, but ran away.
Poor child 1t was evident that the
going to the "gTeat town-house' con-
veyed far more terror to her mind than
marrying her rich sutton.
In an interview an hour later with
Mr.. Delaney I found that he was In
some money difficulty, and this offer OF
marriage from Norris seemed to him toe
ECCNA ~ 10 AOGAs LIZ pun II very NtDlt
cately, as a gentlemen of his breeding
should, and after a moment of silence
during which / mastered my indigna
ton enough to cover it, l offered him
loan, which should assist him at thi.
trying moment more securely than the
possible generosity of a future son-in
law.
AS we went in to dinner, Julia whis
pered to me "It's all right. Papa
so good p
Il am very glad" I said, and wa
amused to see the viftuous complacenc7
81 papa during dinner.
Three years later, when l was livinC
in my very loftily situated apartment
IN Paris, there came "A letter to me from
Julia. Her father was very i'll. Hi
papers having been put in order by
lawyer, she assisted In the fling, etc.
she had for the first time discovere,
her obligation TO me, and wrote t
thank me Z" thus tardily," she said.
was surprised and interested to find tn
letter charmingly written, and that of
cultivated woman. begged in my al
sWec that she would write again and tel
me of her fathers health. And so W
entered into correspondence that gre
to be very intimate.
Mr.. Delaney fingered in an invaii
STATE, falling at last into imbecility
and it was year after his death, whe
my student life was completed, and
was ready to return to my country, ate
an absence of eight years, that l foun
n strange excitement in the thought @
seeing Julia a strange dread, too, les
this might be the end of our friendshi
"A deep sense of the necessity that ha
grown in me for the companionship c
this mind. The depth of her though
surprised me her spirituality elevate
me L learned from her while she wa
unconscious of it ; I consulted her O
serious matters ; her tastes and intU
ton seemed to me. jnfallible; and a
tho while che thought herself In m
debt because / commended her to tn
reading OF few books, whose name
she could have easily found IN any
brary catalogue.
When I lsnded in New York late
June, finding everybody out OF tow