The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-09-20

character" While / was reasoning thus
with myself, the young lady appeared,
leading her old relative with tender care.
g Worshipping and ideal " indeed My
remembrance did not begin to do JUS
tice to the beautiful reality. A soul full
of tenderness and sensibility seemed to
have found fitting home in person and
face of perfect loveliness and grace.
She blushed when, looking around, she
chanced to see me, and again the play of
expression on her features which had 80
interested me formerly, charmed me.
The more / studied her face the more l
seemed to see the pure depth of her soul.
| could have staked my life on her noble
purity of thought and deed.
As we returned home / described my
fair neighbor and asked my mother who
she was.
" Her name," my mother said, ''is Grace
Denny, and she is the loveliest-the most
superior young woman have ever, in my
whole life, met with. 1t is too soon to
think of such things yet" she continued
smiling. "But some years hence it
would make me happy to see my son
married to just such woman"
Not quite so fast, mother" said l,
laughing good deal to hide little boy
ish embarrassment, which / was most
anxious to conceal
found that Grace had become a con-
slant visitor at my mothers and I did not
fail to improve the opportunity of becom-
ing better acquainted with her.
She was indeed gifted creature, en-
dowed with all "nature's best" She
sang, she danced, she conversed with an
indescribable grace peculiar to herself.
Though generally thoughtful and earnest
in her demeanor, she had vein of quiet
humor, and her strokes of playful drollery
charmed all the more from being unex-
pected. But more alluring to me than
all her gifts and accomplishments was the
shrinking sensibility depicted on every
feature of her sweet face. soon found
myself deeply, painfully interested in her.
| say painfully, for Grace received my as
siduous attention with a perfect GOODNESS
and unaccountable unconcern, which gave
me great uneasiness.
Sometimes / thought she remembered
my early impertinence, and was disposed
to punish it. But there was rival,
cousin of Grace's, who always stood in
my way, and from whom Grace received,
as matter of course, numberless little
attentions which dared not even offer
/ hated this man; l was insufferably jeal-
GUS but Grace seemed either perfectly
unconscious or perfectly Indifferent to the
by-play of animosity which was carried
on between us.
Grace, sweet, noble Grace, with her
child like simplicity and sensitive wo-
mans heart-who could resist her?
could not-my whole soul was hers. In
vain had l called on my vanity (of which
Ihad plenty to invoke) to save me from
the modification of loving without return.
| could not stem or control the passion
which, strong as a mighty whirlwind,
had seized me-
One evening l sat at the piano while
Grace sang to me. The cousin was not
there, and dear Grace's varying color and
glistening eyes suggested sweet hopes to
my vanity. fancied saw love in the
bright, dewy eyes and on those music
breathing lips.
1t was the last evening of my vacation,
and surely / read a gentle farewell
thought in Grace's face. was beside
myself with joy at the idea-I was in a
bewildering, blissful dream-a sweet de-
lirium a rapture of love. As Grace rose
to leave the piano caught her hand, and
unable longer to suppress the one thought
that filed my heart, l exclaimed fer
vently j:
Grace, Grace, with all my soul love
you"
She lifted her large, soft eyes, and said
slowly, while mischievous smile played
over her face:
al know it."
She was gone before had time to pre-
vent it, or to recover from my surprise.
The next day returned to college,
expecting to complete my studies in an
other year. A year how long time to
be absent from the beloved being who
was to me, henceforth and forever,
whether she returned my love or not, the
nucleus around which all my thoughts
would revolve. need not say how often
her strange and unsatisfactory answers
answer tormented me. | perceived in
her repetition of the same words, her re-
memberance of the time she had used
them before; and this, then, was the just
punishment for my bringing the whole
scene again to memory-my passionate
declaration of love, and provoking reply,
81 know it." The deuce you dor'
thought / sometimes :" would / had
possessed the Wit to have left you little
more uncertain"
/ often wonder that was able TO study
At this time, for Grace, beautiful, graceful
Grace, was never absent from my thoughts
4 ~