"Heaven bless you, Hugh. My mother prayed often for the preserver
of her child, and need I tell you that I, too, shall never forget
to pray for you? The Lord keep you in all your ways, and lead you
safely to your sister.
"ALICE"
Many times Hugh read this note, then pressing it to his lips thrust it
into his bosom, but failed to see what Alice had hoped he might see,
that the love he once asked for was his, and his alone. He was too sure
that another was preferred before him to reason clearly, and the only
emotions he experienced from reading her note were feelings of pleasure
that she had been set right at last, and that Irving had not withheld
from her the truth.
"That ends the drama," he said. "I don't quite believe she is going with
him to Europe, but she will be his when he returns; and henceforth my
duty must be to forget, if possible, that ever I knew I loved her. Oh,
Golden Hair, why did I ever meet, or meeting you, why was I suffered to
love her so devotedly, if I must lose her at the last!"
There were great drops of sweat about Hugh's lips and on his forehead,
as, burying his face in his hands, he laid both upon the table, and
battled manfully with his love for Alice Johnson, a love which refused
at once to surrender its object, even though there seemed no longer a
shadow of hope in which to take refuge.
"God, help me in my sorrow," was the prayer which fell from the
quivering lips, but did not break the silence of that little room, where
none, save God, witnessed the conflict, the last Hugh ever fought for
Alice Johnson.
He could give her up at length; could think, without a shudder, of the
time when another than himself would call her his wife; and when, late
that afternoon, he took the evening train for Cleveland, not one in the
crowded car would have guessed how sore was the heart of the young man
who plunged so energetically into the spirited war argument in progress
between a Northern and Southern politician. It was a splendid escape
valve for his pent-up feelings, and Hugh carried everything before him,
taking by turns both sides of the question, and effectually silencing
the two combatants, who said to each other in parting: "We shall hear
from that Kentuckian again, though whether in Rebeldom or Yankeeland we
cannot tell."