Hearts Afire by J. D Rawden, Patrick Griffith Page A

have promised.”
    “Oh, my love, my love!”
    “See how I tremble, Charlotte. Life scarcely cares to
inhabit a body so weak. If you refuse me, I will let it go. If you refuse me, I
shall know that in your heart you expect to marry Sir Edward,—the savage who
has made me to suffer unspeakable agonies.”
    “Never will I marry him, Harleigh ,—never, never.
My word is true. You only I will marry.”
    The noon hour was long past, but she made no mention
of it. The moment for parting had come; and, when it has, wise are those who
delay it not. Harleigh fixed his eyes upon his love
until Mistress Gordon had arranged again her bonnet and manteau ;
then, with a smile, he shut in their white portals the exquisite picture. He
could let her go with a smile now, for he knew that Charlotte's absence was but
a parted presence; knew that her better part remained with him, that her heart
was never away, but ever with his forever.”
    The coach was waiting; and, without delay, Charlotte returned with Mistress
Gordon to her lodgings. Both were silent on the journey. When a great event has
taken place, only the shallow and unfeeling chatter about it. Charlotte's heart
was full, even to solemnity; and Mistress Gordon, whose affectation of
fashionable levity was in a large measure pretense, had a kind and sensible
nature, and she watched the quiet girl by her side with decided approval. “She
may not be in the mode, but she is neither silly nor heartless,” she decided;
“and as for loving foolishly my poor, delightful Harleigh ,
why, any girl may be excused the folly.”
    Upon leaving the coach at Mistress Gordon's, Charlotte went to an inner room
to resume her own dress. The India silk lay across a chair; and she took off,
and folded with her accustomed neatness, the elegant suit she had worn. As she
did so, she became sensible of a singular liking for it; and, when Mistress
Gordon entered the room, she said to her, “Madam, very much I desire this suit:
it shall be my wedding-gown. Will you save it for me? Someday I may wear it
again, when Harleigh is well.”
    “Indeed, Charlotte, you shall have the gown. I shall be put it away for
you.”
    “The time, madam? What is the hour?”
    “Indeed, I think it is much after four o'clock. Half an hour hence, you will
have to bring out your excuses.
    “Her excuses” Charlotte had not suffered herself to
consider. She could not bear to shadow the present with the future. She had,
indeed, a happy faculty of leaving her emergencies to take care of themselves;
and perhaps wiser people than Charlotte might, with advantage, trust less to their
own planning and foresight, and more to that inscrutable power which we call
chance, but which so often arranges favorably the events apparently very
unfavorable. For, at the best, foresight has but probabilities to work with;
but chance, whose ways we know not, very often contradicts all our bad
prophecies, and untangles untoward events far beyond our best prudence or
wisdom. And Charlotte was so happy. She really loved Harleigh ;
and on that solid vantage-ground she felt able to beat off trouble, and to
defend her own and his rights.
    “So much better you look, Charlotte,” said Mother. “Where have you been all
the day? And did you see Mary Blankaart ? And the
money, is it found yet?”
    The family were at the supper-table; and Joris looked kindly at his truant daughter, and motioned to the vacant chair at his
side. She slipped into it, touching her father's cheek as she passed; and then
she answered, “At Mary Blankaart's I was not at all,
mother.”
    “Where, then?”
    “To Universal Store I went first, and with Mistress Gordon I have been all
the day.”
    “Who sent you there, Charlotte?”
    “No one, mother. When I passed the house, my name I heard, and Mistress
Gordon came out to me; and how could I refuse her? Much had we to talk of.”
    Lysbet Morgan saw her daughter's placid face, and
heard her open confession, with the greatest