The Soldier's Wife — page 78: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oe THE SOLDIER’S WIFE 63 e tro], she could not without abandoning Lons-; This letter, being duly sealed and addressed, dale return to her father. Such a sacrifice she| was given by Lonsdale to the guard of one of would not make. Though still experiencing a|the coaches; and a fee of five shillings elicited filial regard for her sire, she could no longer|a ready promise that the instructions which love him with the same pure and confiding af-|accompanied it should be punctually obeyed. fection as she had been wont to experience:| Lucy, thinking that her father might possibly his treatment had been too harsh—his tyranny|address her again through the medium of the too unrelenting—and his own character had|/newspapers, begged her lover to keep his eye been developed in colors too dark, not to shock| upon them; and in about a week another ad- the ingenuous feelings of his daughter, and ena-| vertisement appeared, to the following effect :—~ ble her to discover in her own conscience a complete justification for the course which she] “L. D.—I have received your letter bearing was pursuing. At the same time she longed|the London post-mark. Again and again do J to make him aware .hat she was incapable of | beseech you to return. The intelligence haa adopting a wrong path, and that if she re-|reached me that a certain person, F. L., has nounced her home for ever, it must not thence|deserted from his regiment. J implore you by be inferred that she was likely to disgrace the|everything sacred not to unite yourself to that name thatshe had borne. Frederick, whenher|man. You do not know his real character. wishes were made known to him, suggested| Besides, are you aware that at any moment he that if she would write a letter to her father,|may be snatched away from you and subjected he would give it to the guard of one of the/to an infamous punishment? York and London coaches, with strict mjunc- “Your distracted father, tions to put it into the post-office in the metro- sh lB Pt olis. Lucy accordingly penned the following Ines :— For a moment did Frederick Lonsdale hesi- tate to show this advertisement to Lucy. Not “My dear father, that he feared any evil effect from the base in “For in such terms must I address you, inas-|sinuation regarding his own character, because much as notwithstanding everything that has|he knew that his well-beloved would put the occurred, J cannot forget that until recently| proper construction theron: but it was on ac- your treatment of me was always such as to|count of the revelation which would be made demand my devoted love. I have seen your/to her respecting the penalty affixed to the advertisement in the newspapers: but it is im-/crime of desertion, that he thus hesitated. ang that I ean obey your wishes. Things|Carfdor was however one of the leading cha: ave gone too far to permit the hope that wejracteristics of the young man; and he there- could ever again live happily beneath the same|fore promptly made up his mind to show her roof. Rest assured that your daughter will|the advertisement He did so,—at the same never forget the excellent advice which her|time gently and delicately making her aware deceased and lamented mother was wont tojof the nature of the punishment to which her instil into her mind. No, father—on this head|father alluded. At first Lucy was dreadfully - you need not entertain the slightest apprehen-|shocked, and became convulsed with grief: but sion; but you may trust in this assurance, even|the assurances which Frederick gave her, to if you do not know my character sufficiently to|the effect that their precautions were so wel: be full well aware that I am incapable of ddé-|taken and their future plans were so well laid ing anything wrong. From time to time, if|as to render his capture the most distant of opportunities should arrive, you may expect to|chances, succeeded in consoling the young hear from me; and I cherish the hope that I}damsel. As for this second entreaty on the shall be enabled hereafter to suggest some}|part of her father, she remained unmoved,— means by which you may communicate with|her resolution being firmly taken to sacrifice me, if such be your desire. But it is not pro-jall the world rather than abandon her lover. bable that I shall confide to you the place of} The banns having been duty asked on threee my abode; and this I mention not in any spirit|consecutive Sundays, the marriage was cele- of defiance—because of that I am incapable—| brated with as mech privacy and simplicity as but that you may spare yourself the excite-| possible; and Lucy Davis became the bride of ment, the suspense, and the cost of unavailing} him whom she loved so tenderly and devotedly researches to discover me. You know, father,|Forgotten now were all past sufferings and that I am’ not to blame for having fled from| afflictions; and the young pair experienced a you: it was my only alternative—the last re-jsense of happiness whichs absorbed every ap- source to which your own conduct drove me.|prehension of future sorrows. The day after But do not think that I cherish any animosity|their union they proceeded to Carlisle, where against you. Such a feeling is incompatible|they resolved to settle down. They had no with the filial love I have ever borne you.|particular object in choosing this place, beyond Therefore, when I beseech heaven to forgive|the circumstance of its extreme remotenese you, as I forgive you, for your cruelty towards/from that midland county in which Mr. Davia me—and when I add that I am doing my best/dwelt, and of its still greater distance from to efface the sense of it from my mind—it is in| Pertsmouth, where the depot of Lonsdale’s re all sincerity I give you these assurances. Yes:/giment was stationed. The reader has already that God may I less you, my dear father, is in-|/seen that their little plans were prudentially deed the praya of your daughter, sketched out beforehand, and that they did net “L. D.” Jabandon themeelves to chance circumstances ' ‘ COMIC OOOKS.€O)