University of Virginia Library

2. CHAPTER II.

On learning the certainty of Clifton's departure for
a distant land, Julia's spirits, late so buoyant, were
entirely prostrated, while the continued efforts of her
cousin to depreciate him in her estimation tended to
augment the despondency that rested like an incubus
on her mind.

After again and again perusing the only brief record
in her possession of her lover's fond remembrance,
the last doubt of his perfect innocence of all
intentional participation in the offences of which the
gamblers stood charged vanished; and from that
moment his image became enshrined in her inmost
soul, which mirrored to her sense a being pure as
comely, unstained by aught but the unintentional
death of one who sought his own life, and glowing
with little less than the brightness of angelic beauty!
Fearing that the prejudices which her cousin Helen
entertained against Clifton had induced her to

interpose obstacles to his obtaining an interview with
herself, she summoned her maid to her presence,
and inquired whether any gentleman had called to
see her during her absence, or when she was engaged,
within a day or two past. The guilty girl,
perceiving a letter in Julia's hand which she observed
was in Clifton's hand-writing, delivered, as will
be recollected, through Helen, without her knowledge,
and presuming that it communicated his frequent
attempts to obtain an interview, was not a
little puzzled to frame a suitable reply. Her hesitation
and embarrassment were remarked by Julia,
whose suspicions of her cousin's agency in banishing
Clifton from her presence, and of the girl's participation
in the scheme, were now fully aroused.

“Well, Mary,” she said, in a tone of unusual asperity,
“why do you hesitate? Surely my question
is simple and intelligible. As you are not accustomed
to be deficient in readiness of reply, there
must be some extraordinary cause for your present
embarrassment.”

The deceitful girl plainly perceived that her mistress
was too much in earnest to tolerate any subterfuge,
and having received substantial evidences of
De Lyle's liberality, and the promise of further reward,
she deemed it most advisable to affect displeasure
at Julia's remark, and accordingly replied,

“I don't see what right you have to abuse me,
because I can't in a minute tell the name of every
man that called at the door; besides I can't remember

them all if I try. There's that Clifton, the black-leg,
wanted me to carry up his card, but I guess I
served him about right for his impudence, by throwing
it in the gutter. If you ain't pleased, I am ready
to go away, for I don't choose to dance attendance
on thieves and blacklegs.”

The girl's insolence would at any time have insured
her dismissal, but the coarse epithets applied
to her lover so far excited Julia's indignation, that
she bade her depart without a moment's delay; and
as the offender cherished golden anticipations of De
Lyle's future generosity, she was not averse to a
separation; and in a few moments she emerged from
the door, while Julia communicated to Helen her
determination to accompany a friend who was going
by the steamboat the same afternoon to Boston.

The bustle of preparation for her departure so
fully engrossed the attention of Mr. Elwell's household,
that little inquiry was instituted into the cause
of her maid's discharge; and as the girl had not
considered it prudent to select any confidante to her
transactions with De Lyle, all remained ignorant of
the reasons for her dismissal.

On the arrival of Julia at the residence of her affectionate
parents, they perceived, with anxiety and
alarm, that the bloom had left her cheek; while
the cheerful smile which shed its sunny influence on
all previous to her temporary absence, was succeeded
by a profound melancholy, which her vain efforts to
dispel rendered doubly apparent.

Attributing her languor and debility to the fatigue
of travelling, she retired to her room to meditate on
Clifton's love, which, like Aaron's rod, was destined
to swallow up all less powerful affections and
desires.

On reflection, she determined to inform her parents
of the aspersions thrown on Clifton's character,
and her conviction of their injustice; but that maiden
reserve which hesitated to whisper the secret of
its love even to her own breast, forbade her acknowledging
the passion she entertained for our hero. Although
the mature and unbiassed judgment of Mr.
Borrowdale failed to perceive the force of many
circumstances on which Julia relied to establish
Clifton's innocence, yet the opinion he had previously
formed of his character, united with the facts
which were, as may be supposed, placed in the most
favourable light, induced him to hope that his faults
were rather the offspring of rashness and precipitation,
than the baser lineage of innate depravity.

While his partiality for our hero dictated this apology
for his apparent delinquencies, he was compelled
to doubt the justice of Julia's suspicions of De Lyle;
nor could he select from her narrative any well-authenticated
fact, which in his judgment, exculpated
Clifton from the censure due to an association with
professed gamblers. Although this unfavourable decision
was, in tenderness to Julia's opinions, rather
hinted at than expressed, yet the quickened perceptions
of the lovely girl did not fail to construe

its full import; and, despairing of creating converts
to her favourable estimate of her lover's character,
she determined to nurse her passion in secret,
nor participate in any conversation of which he was
the subject.

This natural determination of a sensitive and delicate
mind induced a reserve and shyness foreign to
her former habits, until at length she almost entirely
confined herself to the solitude of her chamber,
brooding, like the struck eagle, over pangs whose
intensity receive little alleviation from the consciousness
that her own breast feathered the arrow that
created them. These lonely musings were remarked
by her fond parents, who saw with alarm that
some fatal but invisible malady was preying on her
system, the progress of which was marked by increased
debility and nervous excitement, and which,
if not speedily arrested. would consign the envied
heiress of Mr. Borrowdale's immense wealth to the
narrow confines of a premature grave.

After repeated solicitations by Mr. Borrowdale and
his lady, that she would permit the attendance of an
eminent physician, she reluctantly assented, but the
acknowledged skill of the disciple of Hypocrates,
failed to remove a disease, whose origin was beyond
the reach of his art.

How wonderful, how delicate, how sensitive, yet
how fearful, is the love of woman! Pervading
every recess of the soul; gathering strength from
resistance, and buoyancy from pressure: high, holy,

and beautiful in its purity, erratic and fearful in its
licentiousness: rivalling the hurricane in its impetuosity,
the avalanche in power, it sweeps over the
heart, prostrating every obstacle in its career, and
burying in one common grave all opposing affections,
prejudices, hopes, and desires. Emblem of
permanence where all else is mutable! type of immortality
in a world on whose banners are inscribed
decay and dissolution! unfathomable as eternity!
inscrutable as fate! transmuting selfishness into
disinterestedness, and fear into bravery:—when
chaste, in its crucible the grosser desires become
etherealized and refined, until the passions of earth
assume the purity of heaven, and mortal devotion
lights its censer at the altar of divinity!

For Julia, there was nothing left but hopelessness
and sorrow. He who alone made existence tolerable,
was removed to another clime, and henceforth, days,
weeks, months might pass, but no sunny influences
would cheer her path.