The Yankee Champion — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

172 THE YANKEE CHAMPION, lently in that position. There was no doubt, no fear, no trembling upon her lovely features, but she seemed to be dwelling within the depths of her own heart. At length she spoke. It was in a calm, sweet tone: ‘“Would you make the poor blind girl your wife?”’ “Yes, Helen, 1 would.”’ ‘“‘And never murmur, nor sorrow, nor feel un- happy, because her eyes were closed forever?”’ “TI could do naught but love her the more.’’ ‘‘Ah, I fear you know not your own heart. I could love you, and be as faithful as heaven itself, be- cause | owe you everything; but not so with you. You would owe me nothing, and I should be but a burden on your hands.”’ ‘‘Answer me this question, Helen. What could give you more exquisite pleasure than to feel that you possessed the full gratitude of others?—that you were the means of making others happy?”’ | ‘‘Nothing. That would be heaven.”’ ‘“‘And that is the happiness I seek. I could love you the more because of your misfortune, and I could still ask you to become my wife.”’ Now Helen trembled. <A spark that had burned in her bosom now burst forth to a flame. ‘‘Some time we will speak of this again,’’ she mur- mured. ‘“Yes, we will speak of it often; but yet you can answer me now.’’ ‘Walter Nixon,” said the beautiful girl, in a calm, frank tone,‘‘I give myself to you, and you can do as your own heart shall dictate. If you should choose for yourself a life companion more fortunate than myself, you would still give me a home, and I should be happy.”’ . ‘} > . > © ae) ie ag. : ‘