I
made no fulsome protestations, and did not once allude to suicide.
She, on the other hand, calmly and gravely thanked me for my good
opinion, but with the same calm gravity rejected me. I used to
tell her that I was grieved; that I would not press her; that I
would wait and hope for some change in her feelings. She had an
esteem for me, she would say, but could not marry me. I never
asked her for any reasons. I hold it to be an insult to a woman of
sense to demand her reasons on such an occasion. Enough for me
that she did not then wish to be my wife; so that the old
intercourse went on--she cordial and polite as ever, I never for
one moment doubting that the day would come when my roof tree would
shelter her, and we should smile together over our fireside at my
long and indefatigable wooing.
I will confess that at times I felt a little jealous--jealous of a
man named Hammond Brake, who lived in our village. He was a weird,
saturnine fellow, who made no friends among the young men of the
neighborhood, but who loved to go alone, with his books and his own
thoughts for company.
Pages:
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545