"
He pressed her hand to his heart before he replied--
"My health will never return; I am lost to this world;
and in fact at this moment I properly belong to
another in my body: would to God that I was purely
so in feelings also."
"Surely, George, you are alarming yourself
unnecessarily."
"I am not alarmed," he replied; "I have too long
foreseen this event, to feel alarmed at my
approaching dissolution--no, for that, blessed be
my God and my Redeemer, I am in some degree
prepared; but I feel it impossible to shake off the
feelings of this life while the pulse continues to
beat, and yet the emotions I now experience must
be in some measure allied to heaven; they are not
impure, they are not selfish; nothing can partake of
either, dear Charlotte, where your image is
connected with the thoughts of a future world."
"Oh, George! talk not so gloomily, so cruelly, this
morning--your whole countenance contradicts your
melancholy speech, and you are better--indeed you
are;--you must be better."
"Yes, I am better, I am nearly well," returned the
youth, pausing a moment, while a struggle of the
most painful interest seemed to engross his
thoughts. As it passed away, he drew his hand
feebly across his clammy brow, and, smiling faintly,
resumed his speech,--"on the brink of the grave, at
a moment when all thoughts of me must be
connected with the image of death, there can no
longer be any necessity for silence.
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