A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 90: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

$8 A LADY BACHELOR. observed her during the evening, as opportunity offered, and received more positive evidence that she lived and hoped not. She was resigned to meet the duties imposed by a solitary and loveless life. On the day following, Laurence wrote a letter to his friend in Paris; he made an allusion to the past, for the first time since opening a correspondence. ‘The allusion was put in a form calculated to elicit an answer. The an- swer came in due time: **My DEAR F'RIEND,—Your letters have always been a source of delight to me, and not less so because of the ab- sence of any reference to the past. I recognize the drift of your intention. ‘The same inexorable condition exists; the decree of fate can never be changed. Iam attending to business and thinking of nothing else. An epidemic has raged here. Oh, strange fate! hundreds were cut off in the midst of their hopes and brightest life-dreams, while I, with no hope, no dreams, am left. Write to me, Lau- rence, write often, but let your loving letters be as silent in one direction as were those preceding your last.’’ The balance of the letter was devoted to commonplace matters. ‘There was a dimness in the eyes of Laurence as he read the lines. He had certainly elicited an answer; he had won a confession in words, and he had learned that indeed the decree of fate was inexorable, and that two lives so well fitted to run together would run apart for- ever. He never again alluded to the past in his letters to George. A year or two later he failed to see the names of Gomichbooks (E@)