"Who knows, he said, but that this may finally be the case; but that the sun of peace may yet dispel the glooms of these distressful hours!" He arose, determined to return home in a few days. He went out and enjoyed his morning walk in a more composed frame of spirits than he had for some time experienced. He returned, and as he was entering the door he saw the weekly newspaper of the town, which had been published that morning, and which the carrier had just flung into the hall.----The family had not yet arisen. He took up the paper, carried it to his chamber, and opened it to read the news of the day. He ran his eye hastily over it, and was about to lay it aside, when the death list arrested his attention, by a display of broad black lines. The first article he read therein was as follows: "Died, of a consumption, on the 26th ult. at the seat of her uncle, Col. W. D--, near Charleston, South Carolina, whither she had repaired for her health, Miss Melissa D----, the amiable daughter of J---- D----, Esq. of *******, Connecticut, in the eighteenth year of her age." The paper fell from the palsied hand--a sudden faintness came upon him--the room grew dark--he staggered, and fell senseless upon the floor. * * * * * The incidents of our story will here produce a pause.----The fanciful part of our readers may cast it aside in chagrin and disappointment. "Such an event," may they say, "we were not prepared to expect.--After so many, and such various trials of heart; after innumerable difficulties surmounted; almost invincible objects overcome, and insuperable barriers removed--after attending the hero and heroine of your tale through the diversified scenes of anxiety, suspense, hope, disappointment, expectation, joy, sorrow, anticipated bliss, sudden and disastrous woe----after elevating them to the threshold of happiness, by the premature death of one, to plunge the other, instantaneously, in deep and irretrievable despair, must not, cannot be right.--Your story will hereafter become languid and spiritless; the subject will be uninteresting, the theme unengaging, since the _genius_ which animated and enlivened it is gone for ever."