Address E. B., care of Mrs. George Andrews, Fancy Bazaar,
High Street."
Mrs. George Andrews was a cousin of Ellen Butts, and that this was
her advertisement I had not the slightest doubt. Suddenly, without
being able to give the least reason for it, an unconquerable desire
to see her arose within me. I could not understand it. I
recollected that memorable resolution after Miss Arbour's story years
ago. How true that counsel of Miss Arbour's was! and yet it had the
defect of most counsel. It was but a principle; whether it suited
this particular case was the one important point on which Miss Arbour
was no authority. What WAS it which prompted this inexplicable
emotion? A thousand things rushed through my head without reason or
order. I begin to believe that a first love never dies. A boy falls
in love at eighteen or nineteen. The attachment comes to nothing.
It is broken off for a multitude of reasons, and he sees its
absurdity. He marries afterwards some other woman whom he even
adores, and he has children for whom he spends his life; yet in an
obscure corner of his soul he preserves everlastingly the cherished
picture of the girl who first was dear to him. She, too, marries.
In process of time she is fifty years old, and he is fifty-two.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130