Love stories; New York (N.Y.) -- History -- 1775-1865 -- Fiction
"Two emigrants," he thought, "pilgrims of Love and Death, and both went
smiling!" An unwonted tenderness came into his heart; he thought of the
bright, lovely bride clinging so trustfully to her husband's arm, and
he voiced this gentle feeling to his wife in very sincere wishes for
the safety and happiness of the little emigrant for Love. He had a
singular reluctance to name her--he knew not why--with the other little
maid who also had left smiling at three o'clock, an emigrant for whom
Death had opened eternal vistas of delight.
"I do not know," said Mrs. Moran, "how Van Ariens could suffer his
daughter to go to a country full of turmoil and bloodshed."
"He was very unhappy to do so, Ava. But when things have gone a certain
length they have fatality. The Marquis had promised to become
eventually a citizen of this Republic, and Van Ariens had no idea in
sanctioning the marriage that his daughter would leave New York. It was
even supposed the Marquis would remain here in the Count de Moustier's
place, and the sudden turn of events which sent de Tounnerre to France
was a severe blow to Van Ariens. But what could he do?"
"He might have delayed the marriage until the return of de Tounnerre."
"Ah, Ava! you are counting without consideration. He could not have
detained Arenta against her will, and if he had, a miserable life would
have been before both of them--domestic discomfort, public queries and
suspicions, questions, doubts, offending sympathies--all the griefs and
vexations that are sure to follow a Fate that is crossed. He did the
best thing possible when he let the wilful girl go as pleasantly as he
could. Arenta needs a wide horizon."
"Is she in any danger from the state of affairs in Paris?"
"Mr. Jefferson says in no danger whatever. Our Minister is living there
in safety. Arenta will have his friendship and protection; and her
husband has many friends in the most powerful party. She will have a
brilliant visit and be very happy."
"How can she be very happy with the guillotine daily enacting such
murders?"
"She need not be present at such murders. And Mr. Jefferson may be
right, and we outsiders may make too much of circumstances that France,
and France alone, can properly estimate. He says that the God that made
iron wished not slaves to exist, and thinks there is a profound and
eternal justice in this desolation and retribution of aristocrats who
have committed unmentionable oppressions. I know not; good and evil are
so interwoven in life that every good, traced up far enough, is found
to involve evil. This is the great mystery of life. However, Ava, I am
a great believer in sequences; there are few events that break off
absolutely. In Arenta's life there will be sequences; let us hope that
they will be happy ones. Where is Cornelia?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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