Year: 1878

~ A New York letter to the Baltimore


sam says On Tuesday there weresberne
from sumptuous house. high up on


Fifth Avenue, for interment in a Con-
necticut town on the New Haven road,
not far from this city, the remains OF
reyered wife and mother whose distant
girlhood had supplied the heroine, of q
romance as dramatic. as ever found ex-
position in novel or on stage. Half a
century ago, when she was the only un--
married daughter Of an old and wealthy
family of the town in whose cemetery


her body now rests, she came to New


York in the bloom ana vivacity of a
youth just conscious of its own power,
to visit the friendly household of one OF


our first merchants. IA prolongation of
her sojourn here did not excite the re:


monsLrance of her parents anti1 they
were surprised by information that her


delay was possibly occasioned by the
frequent calls Of a gentleman, a heuten-
ant of the British navy, whose attentions
! seemed ominously serious, when her
mother took the family carriage precipi-i
lately for the. city, to, convey back
forthwith, the giddy damsel. Upon


arraignment before the maternal bar
the young lady did not deny the
frequent visits Of the alleged suitor,
whom her New \ ork friends bad. seen
no reason to interfere with; indeed,


upon stepping into the carriage to go
! home (there was no. New. Hay en- Kali
road them she said, quite coelfy: "t s
useless to fnd fanlts now, ma, for / am
married. Such indeed was the start
ling fact; after a short and only finally
suspected summers courtship, she and
the Lieutenant had been clandestinely
married, and before the Mortified mother
and romantic daughter had been in their
Connecticut home twenty -four hours the
bold Young sailor was there too, to claim
his wife! But he found her prisoner,
locked in her own room, and both par
ents met his appeals with steady re-
fusal to acknowledge his authority. The
girl was but d child, they said, not con-
scious of her own mind, and they should
resist with every possible form of law,


any attempt to remove her from their
custody. The husband, urging that
they loved each other, was told thatshe


whom he had made his wife in name
new bitterly regretted her sentimental
| folly, and wished to see him no more.


Astounded at this; assertion, the
young man passionately impugned
its truth. Would he be generous
enough to. give her up, he was
| ashed, if she herself assured him of
her desire to that effect? Chivalrously,
/ thntIph foo rashly perhar)s he agreed
so to do, confident, undoubtedly, that
she would prove true to him. And, then
came the most extraordinary scene OF
| the little drama. A married sister strik-
ingly resembling the yet imprisoned vir-
gin wife had been hastily summoned
from this city for the purpose, and art
fully dressed to intensity the resem-


blance, hurriedly entered 1the room
where the Lieutenant was present, with
q friend for o witness, to learn his fate,


and, with simulated sobs, hastily hid


her face ON her mothers bosom. Sup.
posing her to be the wife whom he ag.


itated1y called by name, the deceived


husband begged her to 60 with him. :"


wish to remain with my mother!h was


the apparently fearful answer, without
/ so much as "a glance fef him, and with


out another word the Lieutenant bowed
to parents and child, and at once with


drew with his friend from thelroom and
the. house. On, his way back to New


York by steamboat a favorite dog thai


accompanied him leaped overheard. and
he, plunging instantly over to the rescue


was drowned. = ssa sat54 IT.