And with this sense quickening your better nature, you venture the
wealth of your whole heart-life upon the hope that now blazes on your
path.
----You are seated at your desk, working with such zeal of labor as
your ambitious projects never could command. It is a letter to Margaret
Boyne that so tasks your love, and makes the veins upon your forehead
swell with the earnestness of the employ.
* * * * *
----"DEAR MADGE,--May I not call you thus, if only in memory of
our childish affections; and might I dare to hope that a riper
affection, which your character has awakened, may permit me to call you
thus always?
"If I have not ventured to speak, dear Madge, will you not believe that
the consciousness of my own ill-desert has tied my tongue; will you not
at least give me credit for a little remaining modesty of heart? You
know my life, and you know my character,--what a sad jumble of errors
and of misfortunes have belonged to each. You know the careless and the
vain purposes which have made me recreant to the better nature which
belonged to that sunny childhood, when we lived and grew up together.
And will you not believe me when I say, that your grace of character and
kindness of heart have drawn me back from the follies in which I lived,
and quickened new desires which I thought to be wholly dead? Can I
indeed hope that you will overlook all that has gained your secret
reproaches, and confide in a heart which is made conscious of better
things by the love you have inspired?
"Ah, Madge, it is not with a vain show of words, or with any counterfeit
of feeling, that I write now; you know it is not; you know that my heart
is leaning toward you with the freshness of its noblest instincts; you
know that--I love you!
"Can I, dare I hope, that it is not spoken in vain? I had thought in my
pride never to make such avowal,--never again to sue for affection; but
your gentleness, your modesty, your virtues of life and heart, have
conquered me! I am sure you will treat me with the generosity of a
victor.
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