She is very brilliant and accomplished,
but is retiring. I am willing to tell you, but it must go no farther,
that we are betrothed.
"Yours, in a hurry,
"FRANK LILLIVAN."
My heart was as the mercury of a thermometer which is plunged into ice;
but I preserved an outward composure. Turning over the pile of letters
awaiting owners, I came upon one, directed in Lillivan's handwriting,
to Miss A. Tarlingford, etc., etc.
To think that a paltry superscription should carry such a weight of
tribulation with it!
I thus discovered that my lines had fallen in unpleasant places. I was
fishing in a preoccupied stream, and had got myself entangled.
I avoided the public table, and shrunk from society. During the whole
of the next morning, I kept aloof from the temptations of Tarlingford,
and took to billiards.
In the afternoon, as I sat gloomily in my room, with feet protruding
from the window, and body inclined rearward, (the American attitude of
despair,) the piano tinkled. It was the same melody which had attracted
me a few happy days before.
Pages:
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281