352 LOTF.S OF A BACHELOR. 



her presence. And this feeUng of strong regret at the circunistancen 

 which imposed on us the necessity of this temporary separation from 

 each other, seemed to be mutual. I cannot even yet forget — so long 

 as I have life I never will forget, although the recollection is a 

 source of mortification and pain to me — with what apparent over- 

 flowings of affection she embraced me on the occasion — how, indeed 

 it was absolutely necessary to tear myself, as if by a desperate sort of 

 efibrt, from her tenaciously clinging arms. 



After two days' travel, I found myself in the midst of my relations 

 and friends. To the two already referred to I gave a hearty invi- 

 tation to be present while my ardent aspirations were to be realized — 

 while my future felicity was to be sealed. In giving this invitation, 

 and indeed in speaking of Christina to my friends in general, I ex- 

 patiated in a strain of eloquence, to which I did not previously ima- 

 gine myself equal, on the countless good qualities, as well as personal 

 fascinations, she possessed. It is unnecessary to say that my friends 

 congratulated me with the utmost cordiality on the boundless bliss 

 which, according to my own showing — for they had never before 

 seen or heard of the lady — was in reserve for me. Never ques- 

 tioning the accuracy of the reports I had storied abroad respecting the 

 virtues of Miss Ogilvie.someof my town's ladies, former acquaintances 

 of my own, began, as I had reason to understand, lo wish tiiemselves in 

 the same relation to measthatin which she then stood. They indivi- 

 dually reasoned with themselves after this fashion : — " If a lady of such 

 an amiable disposition, and such decidedly superior accomplishments 

 as universal report ascribes to Miss Ogiivie, has agreed to become Mr. 

 Jonathan's wife, there surely must be something more in him than we 

 gave him credit for when residing here, and I should have no objec- 

 tion, were it so ordered, to share with him myself the joys and 

 sorrows of life." I was even assured from undoubted and undoubt- 

 able authority that my former acquaintance. Miss Bennett, and the 

 physician himself, both regretted most bitterly that my written over- 

 tures to the former were not treated more courteously — were not, 

 in short, accepted. I was indebted for this piece of information to a 

 confidential friend who, by the merest accident in the world, had over- 

 heard the doctor and his daughter chiding each other most bitterly on 

 the subject — the father attributing all the blame in the matter to his 

 daughter, and the young lady protesting most vehemently that it 

 was by sheer threats and force on his part that she was induced to 

 consent to the insulting note being sent nie. She added — and my 

 informant assured me that, from the tone of her voice, the tear must 

 have glistened in her eye while she did so — that, had she been left to 

 follow the bent of her own inclination, she would unhesitatingly have 

 accepted of the proposals I had made to her. I need not say how 

 fondly I chuckled over this intelligence — it was, indeed, to use a 

 homely phrase, marrow to my bones. 



It was now within four days of the momentous moment which was 

 to seal my terrestrial felicity; and I had sitten down to write to 

 Miss Christina, now my bride, that my two relations and myself were 

 to set out for Edinburgh by next morning's coach. The letter from 

 beginning to end was replete with superlatively affectionate breath- 



