o be disappointed
thereby. At the outset, I had no intention of seeking a title to the
property by complying with the specification set forth at the instance
of its late owner; and only looked upon it as a piece of crack-brained
folly, that would serve for a nine days' comment and jest, and then be
forgotten; but when I saw, that instead of being treated with the
courtesy and respect no conscious act of mine had ever forfeited, I was
ridiculed, sneered at, and looked upon with jealousy and hate by those
whose souls were too narrow to believe in a noble action--and who,
measuring and judging me by their own sordid standards of avaricious
justice, deemed I would spare no pains to legally rob them, as they
termed it,--when I saw this, I say, my blood became heated, my fiercer
passions were roused, and I inwardly swore, that if it were now in my
power to accomplish what they feared, I would do it, though the lady in
question were a fright to look upon. In this decision I was rather
encouraged by my father, who being at the time somewhat involved,
thought it a feasible plan of providing for me, and then, by my aid,
recovering from his own pecuniary embarrassments.

"As yet I had never seen Elvira--she living in an adjoining county,
some thirty miles distant, where my aunt, on a visit to a distant
relative, had first made her acquaintance, and formed that singular
attachment, peculiar to eccentric temperaments, which had resulted in
the manner already shown. Accordingly, one fine spring morning, I
mounted my horse, and set forth to seek my intended, and behold what
manner of person she was of. Late at night I arrived at the village
where she resided--stabled my beast--took lodging at a hotel--inquired
out her residence--and, betimes, the morning following, made my
obeisance in her presence, and with that bashful, awkward grace--if I
may be allowed so paradoxical a term--which my youth present purpose,
and former good breeding combined, were calculated to produce. I was
more embarrassed still a minute after, when, having given my name, and
hinted at the singular document of the old lady deceased, I found my
fair intended, as well as her family, were in total ignorance of my
meaning; and could I at the moment have been suddenly transferred to my
horse, I do not think I should have paused to make the necessary
explanation. As it was, there was no alternative; and accordingly
begging a private interview with Elvira, I disclosed t