This slip was cut out and treasured by her--and once when her father
was grumbling and predicting bad luck to his evil genius, as he called
him, she brought forth and displayed, with a grateful heart, this
notice to prove she had not loved unworthily.
Her father listened with interest to the extract from the speech and
the comments relative to the speaker. He had been considerable of a
politician, and as Ernest was of the same party as himself, he felt
really glad of his brilliant prospects.
"In all probability he is married long ago, and has almost, if not
quite, forgotten you, Constance. At any rate, you see your sending him
off did no hurt. Men are sensible; they don't die of love. Something
more formidable, in the way of disease, must attack to carry them off,
or affect their minds, either. Yes, yes, child, be sure he has
transferred his affections long ago," remarked the father.
"I cannot tell, father. Perhaps it is so; you can judge of man's
constancy better than I. If I judged him, it would be by my own heart,
then I should be sure he is not married. I think that when alone, and
freed from the care and toil of business, or, at rest from his
studies, that his mind wanders back to the girl of his love.
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