Love's labor wonSouthworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
General
Love's labor won
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
Elopement -- Fiction; Washington (D.C.) -- Fiction
It was some weeks after this when the famous attack upon the parsonage
was made, and young William Dawson was taken prisoner. While upon
his parole, an irresistible attraction drew him to seek Margaret. He
visited her in her private apartment, entering and departing by the
garden door. Nellie saw him depart. Margaret besought him to come no
more. After that, he lingered near the house, and met her in her walks.
The spies of Nellie Houston discovered and reported this interview. Yet
again they met in the woods, where Margaret entreated him not to waylay
her.
About that time also, Clare Hartley spoke in the presence of the young
ensign of her own and Margaret Helmstedt’s purposed visit to Fort
Warburton. The visit was not made; but William Dawson, missing Margaret
from her accustomed haunts, wandered off to the neighborhood of Fort
Warburton, where he was taken for a spy, and as such might have been
hung, had he not bribed a messenger to carry a note to his sister, whom
he now knew to be not at the fort. The messenger, in going away, was
seen by Nellie, who naturally took him to be the young ensign. Margaret
obeyed the peremptory summons, and the same night departed for Fort
Warburton. With the terrible train of misfortunes that ensued, the
reader is already acquainted.
Immediately after the prevented duel and the parting with her lover,
Margaret sought her brother, and, taking the marriage certificate, and
the letter of Lord William Daw, embarked with her brother for Liverpool.
On reaching England, she immediately sought the Marquis of Eaglecliff,
and laid before him the claims of his grandson. At the first sight of
the young man, the aged peer made an exclamation of surprise. So great
was his likeness to the late Lord William Daw, that the marquis almost
fancied he beheld again his long-lost son.
Legal steps were immediately taken to establish his identity and
confirm his position. Law processes are proverbially slow. In all,
it was about twelve months between the time that William Daw was
acknowledged by his grandfather, and the time when his position as
the legal heir of Eaglecliff was permanently established. And it was
more than two years from the day upon which the brother and sister had
sailed to England, to that upon which they so opportunely returned to
America.
But little remains to be written. With spring, Margaret’s beauty
bloomed again.
In June Ralph Houston led his long-affianced bride to the altar. After
an extended trip through New England, they took up their residence in
the city of Richmond, where Ralph Houston had been appointed to a high
official post.
Lord Falconridge remained through the winter, the guest of his sister
and brother-in-law. Major Helmstedt, of course, took up his abode with
his daughter and her husband.
Honest Frank Houston married Clare Hartley, with whom he lives very
happily at Plover’s Point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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