University of Virginia Library

19. CHAPTER XIX.

“As you may well imagine, this narrative did not
lie unread. Every page was greedily devoured,
before I closed my eyes, which was late in the
night. I lay late next morning; the family had
breakfasted when I descended to the parlour. Mrs.
Brumley, however, seasoned that meal to me with
her delightful conversation, which was the more
agreeable as no one intruded upon us.

“Announcing the object of my visit, I respectfully
solicited her consent and co-operation. The one
was charmingly granted, the other enthusiastically
promised; I say enthusiastically, because that
good lady was exceedingly anxious to adopt any
laudable course which was likely to dispel her
daughter's melancholy.

“Ah, Randolph! her language was too flattering
for me to repeat verbatim; she, however, told me,
that she was sure every feeling of her (admirable)
daughter's heart leaned in my favour; that she had
nevertheless not given way even to the first impulses
of those emotions, because she considered
it her duty never to carry her misfortunes into any

other family. `But,' said she, `this is a morbid
sensitiveness, which you must overcome; and
when once she is happily married, she will be
again restored to her natural self and to happiness.'

“I found that she had walked to the banks of the
river, where I soon found her seated on a rugged
little stony seat, looking over upon the water and
the blue cliffs, as melancholy as if it had been twilight
instead of a beautiful, cool, unclouded morning.
She looked up as my footsteps disturbed the
pebbles in the bank. I was in my most happy
mood, and springing to the little level, I seated
myself on the grass at her feet, and seized her passive
hand.

“`Did Miss Frances suppose that there was one
single circumstance in her sad story which would
not render her far more dear to my heart than
ever? Could she have been in earnest when she
once said that such a revelation would be a sufficient
answer to my suit? Certainly not! Believe
me, dear lady, the sheets which I read last night
have made me a hundred times more determined
than ever to prosecute my humble claims to this
dear hand.'

“No answer was returned, but one plentiful
shower of tears after another: these I thought
favourable, and I proceeded: `Your mother and
mine unite their irresistible petitions with my feeble
suit; certainly then, after the concluding acknowledgment,
which I will ever hold in my possession,

you cannot persist in your too refined notions of
delicacy.'

“But, Randolph, I am too eager in rushing towards
the conclusion, to relate all the particulars
of the how and wherefore: she is mine! mine,
Randolph; that is, after old Sandford's death: by
heavens, I must `put a spider into his dumpling' if
he is not so kind as to die soon. My time now
passes off here delightfully. Frances begins really
to look cheerful, and I doubt not, when her tranquillity
is more restored, will consent to an early
day; seeing that, when once she is mine, she will
be beyond the reach of her tormentor. Will that
day ever come, Randolph? Will this beautiful
creature really be mine? I can scarcely realize
my own happiness; yet her eyes say so, and her
very music speaks to my soul in anticipation of
coming enjoyment.

“Oh! how I hate that old saw about a `slip between
the cup and the lip.' 'Tis all stuff; I will
not believe a word of it; there is no philosophy
in it: for if it had been so often true as its language
imports, this world would have been, and
still would be, nothing but one great and ludicrous
scene of broken cups and spilt pleasures. Misery
must be common when it becomes ludicrous; yet
if all the world were standing gaping over their
broken vessels, looking dismal at their loss, it certainly
would turn tragedy into farce. The fact is,
there must be a great preponderance of enjoyment
in this world before tragedy can be affecting.

None feel losses so much as those who are rich.
Providence has given us a fair world, and peopled
it with beautiful creatures, and covered it with
varying trees and flowers, seas and rivers, diamonds
and minerals, delicious fruits and luxuries
to gratify the palate and the eye, and charm the
soul; and yet one of our standing thanks to the
great Giver of these things is, `there are many
slips between the cup and the lip!' If the slips
had been more numerous than the potations, the
latter would have been noticed instead of the
former. It is the rarity and the greatness of these
slips which make them remarkable.

“There is a page of philosophy for you, with a
vengeance! But you cannot expect me to be very
sensible or very consistent under existing circumstances.
Only reflect what a thumping there is
against my ribs, whenever I think of the subject
with which I commenced this epistle: a pretty
story I made of it, indeed; but then it is natural
that it should be so, after all. Does a man, when
he climbs to an intoxicating height, turn round and
philosophize on the steps by which he ascended?
By no means. He turns himself and elevates his
wings in this new heaven to which he has risen, as
I now raised mine. He thinks of soaring in these
new regions, or climbing to those still more exalted;
but let me see if I can, by any strength of
resolution, get back to common sense again.

“This once mysterious lady of the black mantle
has wonderfully changed within the last few days.

She has actually laughed! yes, till the tears ran
down her cheeks; and at what, do you suppose?
At a certain epistle from a southern gentleman of
about your dimensions! Yes, it is true. I know
you will swear never to indite another to so faithless
a correspondent; but I could not help it. She
had a great curiosity to know more about my cousin;
so I thought it would exhibit her in a favourable
light to show her your first impressions. Unfortunately,
I handed her the wrong letter, and as
bad luck would have it, we had to peruse the
whole before we came to the first one, which was
a very natural consequence of the pack being
turned upside down. I found that the letters themselves
appeared to more advantage, too, when she
read them. I could thus receive all the palpable
substance of them from her exquisitely musical
voice; besides seeing all the delightful effects of
the thoughts, as they were beautifully reflected
upon a transparent countenance, the features of
which vibrated like the leaves of a sensitive-plant
when too rudely assailed.

“The face is but a reflecting surface for the soul
at last. All other beauty than that of the soul
transferred to the features is earthy and grovelling.
Oh, Randolph, how seldom does it fall to
the lot of man to find such a treasure! Age seems
almost necessary to bring that experimental wisdom
which engages our respect and esteem, by
which process beauty departs; fate seems generally
to determine that no one individual shall have

a combination of all the good qualities at once;
but here, Randolph, in the case of this most remarkable
young lady, experience and wisdom
have come before age had stolen away the beauty.
Oh, rare and excellent concurrence of circumstances!
What if they were the death of a presumptuous
aspirant, unworthy to breathe in the
same atmosphere with her. Hah! perhaps I am
myself presumptuous? Methinks I have read
somewhere of an enchantress, who slew a host of
admirers in succession, for a like presumption!
Shall I indeed possess this idol of all my faculties?
Sanguine youth and southern blood say yes! Her
guardians and mine say yes! Herself says yes!
And by all that is resolute, naught but the Ruler
of our destinies shall say no.

“Excuse the incoherent strain of this epistle,
and believe me to be, far more coherently, your
friend,