Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-02-23

h Sophy, for you to grant his wish %
e Sophy started back. A look of wonder, o
i incredulity, appeared on her face.
'sMamma! You can't think it," she ex
: claimed, almost reproachfully.
r ''Why not, my child ?"
"Why not why not ?" echoed Sophy, in
} finitely troubled and dismayed. 'How coult
! I? You know all that feel"
II know all that you feel, and know thai
, your sorrow has been natural and right. But
my darling, you are very young. 1t is hare
that your whole life should be passed in mourn
ing and regret. 1t would be an inexpressible
; comfort to me to feel that you could be once
more restored to happiness. 1t is not natura
that you should grieve always. God does
, not intend that we should nurse our sorrows
, forever"
81 can never be happy again." returned
. Sophy "certainly never, if I married any one.
!; My greatest comfort is in remembering him
all that he was to me all that we were to each
other. I shall be true to his memory as long
as live 1t is all that is left me of him; and
I shall never give it up"
''Do not give it up remember him kindly,
affectionately, as dear andlong-loyed friend ;
but don't let his memory stand in the way of
your welfare. Sophy, it will be far, far better
for you if you accept Mr. Erskine's Offer"
ssBetter for me-how? In worldly comforts,
of course I will be better off but what are
they? Shall sell myself for wealth and ease %
asked Sophy, excitedly. ....
'sNo. Iwould be the last to bid you do that ;
| 4bo nf a fr,,o
and noble heart; heart that will devote
itself to your happiness, and whose love by
degrees will win yours in RETURN"
ssIt could not do that. Oh, mamma, you
don't know you don't understand. thought
you, of all people, would enter into my feel
ings," said Sophy, who was all in culver
with mingled excitement, sort OF wondering
Indignation, and the effort to control her
emotion so as to avoid agitating her mother
too much. "Look at your own self-do you
forget would ..'ou form other ties %
A faint color rose in Mrs. Mays face, and
the tears started to her eyes. "Sophy, you
should not ask me such question; it is not
right. But since you ask it will answer you.
1 would never marry again, nor can l, truly
believe, ever recover from the shock which has
been the uprooting of all my happiness in life
I feel it sacrlege even to consider the possi-
bility of second marriage but are our cases
parallel ? For nearly twenty years, l had
been your fathers wife. He was everything
to me, from the time when almost child, he
took me from an unkind stepmother's so-called
care, and brought me to his home. What
that home, what his love, were to me always,
you can but family imagine But you, my
child, were only promised in marriage. Your
engagement, even, was but few weeks old
when Harry left you. Granting that this did
not prevent you from loving him as truly as
if you had been much longer together, it is
still unreasonable to think yourself bound to
mourn for him as if you had been his wife. ="
II don't do it because I am bound to; my
own heart makes me do it. And it is all the
same" <.e..>.
Cali the same as what ?''
GAS if had been his wife," said Sophy,
half below her breath.
'Nay my dear child, that is not possible. 1t
is entirely different. And if you were older,
even it would seem more natural. But you
are so young"
GAS if my age had anything to do with it .!
Because am young must be unfeeling ?"
Sophy burst out passionately. eff 1were fifty
years older could not care more. But it IS
no use talking any more about it it is useless
trouble for you to talk, and for me to listen.
Nothing can ever come of it, except to make
us all more unhappy, and am sure we have
misery enough as it is 1 shall never marry
never will marry anybody, unless Harry
comes home again."
''Sophy, it cannot be possible that you still
cherish such hope?"
''No, 1 don't hope, but God may yet pity
me and grant my prayers. Do you suppose
have ever ceased to pray, night and day, for
his return Stranger things have happened.
Men have been wrecked and cast on desert
shores, and gone through untold perils, and re-
turned home years and years after everybody
believed them dead. I have no proof that
he-that my darling-is lost. People say he
is. know the ship he was on went down."
"And every one in it, put in her mother.
$50 it is supposed But who was there to
see if any one escaped ?''
''My child, my dear child, there is no hope.
If he, or any one else had been saved, we must
surely have heard of it long before this. 1t is
a delusive idea, sophy; it can only prolong
your unhappiness to cherish it. Accept the
certainty of his death. 1t is trial sent you
by your Heavenly Father, to teach you meek
ness and submission but not to blight your
whole long life. Tell me, Sophy, do you not
believe that I loved Harry truly yes, almost
as if he had been my son 20
81 always thought that you did,
"You know that I did. l gave proof OF 1t
in every way. You know that readily con-
sented to your engagement; that I rejoiced at
it, believing it to be for your happiness and
his q; that had he been spared, I should most
gladly have seen youths wife. But since these
hopes were destroyed can bear to see you
sitting in sackcloth and ashes all your days
It adds tenfold to my own sorrow, to perceive
how entirely you have succumbed beneath
yours. verify believe that it would prolong
my life to know that you were happily situated,
as the wife of true, good man; to know that
this burden which you bear has been lifted
from your heart"
81 have often heard you say, mamma, that
people should not marry without love-"
''But is one always sure of ones own feel
ings? There can be no better foundati - il
love than real, true esteem, founded upon solid
WORTH DO you not think Mr.. Erskine worthy
of such regard ?"
sOf course do. know him to be good
almost perfect but even an angel could not
win nv love if had none to bestow upon him