“This letter melted me; and yet I was inclined to be angry with C. for the unnecessary pain her abrupt disappearance had inflicted upon me. I was divided between this feeling and the relief of mind afforded by the knowledge that my folly had not resulted in any fatal event. She had gone to E---- in a fit of jealousy, and she favoured me with the usual feminine reproaches so natural to the narrow female intellect--imagine a _man_ reminding his friend at every turn of the sacrifices he had made for friendship!--and she sent me the address of that humble inn where she had taken up her abode, and of course expected me to hasten thither as fast as post-horses could convey me. “Nothing could be more hackneyed than the end of the little romance. I will not say that I was capable of feeling disappointed because the poor child had not drowned herself; but I confess that this commonplace turn which the affair had taken, grated on my sense of the poetical. It is possible that I had indeed learnt to measure everything by the standard of Greek verse; certain it is that it seemed a sinking in poetry to descend from Sappho’s fatal leap to a commercial-travellers’ tavern at E----. ‘I will start for E---- to-morrow morning,’ I said to myself; but without enthusiasm. “Had I rescued my love from all-devouring ocean--had I found her wandering half-crazed upon the mountains, like that lorn maiden whom even savage beasts compassionated, when she roamed disconsolate, crying, ‘Tall grow the forest trees, O Menalcas,’-- I think I should have taken her to my heart of hearts, and sacrificed my freedom to secure her happiness. But this departure for E----, and the long reproachful letter, savoured of calculation; and against the manœuvres of feminine diplomacy I wore the armour of experience. “I ordered post-horses for the following morning, and then set off in the direction of my friend’s hunting-lodge. ‘My bosom’s lord sat lightly on his throne,’ relieved from the burden of a great terror; but poor C.’s dreary letter was not calculated to put me in high spirits, and I hastened to refresh myself with the society of the sparkling Carlitz. “I languished for the frivolous talk of people and places I knew--the _olla-podrida_ of sentiments and fancies, facts and fictions, spiced with that dash of originality, or at the least audacity, wherewith an accomplished woman of the world flavours her small-talk. Lightly and swiftly I trod the hill-side, pleased when the blue smoke curling from the familiar chimneys met my eager eyes. ‘Is it possible that I am in love with this woman?’ I asked myself, wonderingly. “And then I remembered my despair and terror of yesterday, and the fond regret with which I had thought of poor C., yearning to clasp her to my heart, to promise eternal fidelity.