The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-07-05

scncc, for months and perhaps for years,
with no JOY but Your own faithfulness
and your belief in minc?"
you will not leave me?" | gasp, the
bittcrcst terror | have ever known chill
ing my heart, as l Try vainly to see his
face in the darkness.
1--WE are discovered, Laura. DO not
trcmblc so, carina''-his voice taking
| the CarcssinS tone | know 50 well. Il
do not mean that any one knows of our
meeting here but someone has discov-
| cred that we love each other, for have
been ordered to Elba, and | am Ger
tain that it is through your fathers in
flucncc. Nay, my blessed one, if you
weep SO bitterly how can tell you that,
after all, this may be good news, if only
we are true to each other? Be brave,
ANNA mia, and listen"
What is there that | would not do if
| he told me to do ito | smother the
sobs that are choking me, and listen
while he tells ne all that he hopes and
fears. He must so to Elba tomorrow,
to remain certainly six months, proba-
bly, 4 year; but the purpose for which
he is sent IS the construction of some
engineering work. and in such work lie
his only means OF earning distinction,
| promotion, and the dim, distant hope
of such success rs may enable him to
ask me of my father with some chance
of corscnt. listen, and though the
ache in my heart grows no less, yet,
with my head on his breast and his
voice in my cars, cannot be hopeless,
cannot doubt the faithlulncss of his
love OF my own. so, heart to heart
and check TO check, we swear to keep
true and loyal the love we bear each
other, even if we should meet no more
on earth.
''Sigrorina sisnorina ~ comes the
shrill voice of Romilda through the
darkness, art thou mad to linser thus
i'll the dew"
Very hurried and very silent is our
parting, and presently | enter the sal
on, where my parents are waiting for
the carriage, with glow in my cheeks
and light in my eyes which make my
father declare approvingly that his
bambina IS growing pretty. am re-
solved to be brave, and bear myself
with the cheerful courage which be
comes one who knows that the truest
heart in the world belongs to her, and
that God in lis good time will bring
him back. All the evening at the MI
Sicale | am gay, and | sing SO well that
even mamma looks pleased. Only
once. when the grand sweet voice OF
Countess Lowcnstcin swels out in a
pathetic old German song, | astonish
Count Bcnvenuto by sudden sob.
Is i>t hestimmt IN GottcS l;ath
DaS man vom liebsten man har,
MuSs ScLcidcn, ia Sch2ideu.'
Three hundred and siNty-iiye dreary
days and nights with that terrible sea
between us, and nobody but Romilda
to tell my trouble to O God: how
shall | ever bcar it,"
am to be married to-mo,.o w. The
trunks ore al packed and locked, cN-
ccpt the one in which my wedding
dress is to placed. RomiIda has put
my little room III something like order
and has left me. after a tender stroke
of my hair and 4 husky "Checr up, ca
rira."
an alone, leaning out Of the win,
dow, with damp breeze tanning my
hot checks, while gaze up at a SKY
which is without st2rs, and almost a:
dark as my hcal, Ii is all ovcr-thc
struggle, the submission, the suspense
the dcspair-and | am to be married
tomorrow. 1t is ten months since
Bcnctctto went away, and though
have Written him twice since the wal
began between my p2~ents' will and
mine. he has sent me neither word nol
sigh. Six weeks after he left, Count
Bcnycnuto asked me in marriage. and
being enormously rich, and of name
as ancient as my own, my parents re-
solved that should MARY him, and
they have won their resolve | am to
marry him tomorrow. Eight months
is long. long while for one weak sri
to oppose her whole world, With only
dead silence in answer to her appeals
to the man for whom she suffers 4 per-
sccution none the less cruel that all its
cruelty is moral. They did not strike
me, nor sto.,c NE, nor shut me up
only talked to me constantly Of my
duty while | was at home. and finally
sent me to 4 convent en- rctraitc for
two months. 1t does not sound hard,
but God knows (if he has time to know
one miserable girls hearD it was hard
to bear. | am not strong brave wo-
man who can stand firm against re-
proachcs and taunts, but only 4 poor
weak child used to plcasantness and
kindness disapproval subdues me,
GOODNESS kills me. and when | lost faith
in Bcncdctto the little strength | had
failed me. and | yielded.
My father tells me that | shall be
the happicst, wcalthiest, most admired
woman in Florence. My mother says
that | have done wisely to prove that I