Ellen Walton, an heiress, jointly with her brother, in prospective, and
reputed the wealthiest fair one in all the district, (the world don't
always know the true situation of a man's affairs,) was not left to pine
away in solitude with the dismal prospect in view of becoming that dreaded
personage--_an old maid_. No, she was _beset_ with admirers; some loving
_her_, some her _wealth_, and some _both_. To all but one she turned a deaf
ear; that one, though the least presuming of the many, and too diffident to
urge his claim until impelled by the irresistable violence of his love,
possessed, unknown to himself, a magnetic power over the heart of the fair
being. Many were the doubts and fears of both--natural accompaniments of
true, sincere, devoted, but unacknowledged, love--but all were dispelled
by the mutual exchange of thoughts, and the mutual plighting of faith. Vows
once made by the pure in heart, are seldom, if ever, broken, and then by
some higher duty or demand.
For a time the youthful lovers were happy--happy in themselves, and the
joys of the new existence opened up to them by the magic wand of LOVE. But
love has its trials, as all can testify who have tasted its potency in the
heart; and so these two learned. Their engagement was a family secret, not
yet to be developed.
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