, you gave me yourself; and I claim
you as my own, without formal scruples or unnecessary delay."

Mrs. Linwood exerted all her eloquence with her son to induce him to
defer the union at least one year, till I had seen something of the
world,--till I was better acquainted with my own heart.

"Yes! wait till she loses the freshness and simplicity that won me,--the
sweetness and ingenuousness that enchained me!" he cried impetuously.
"Wait till she has been flattered and spoiled by a vain and deceiving
world; till she learns to prize the admiration of many better than the
true love of one; till she becomes that tinsel thing my soul abhors, a
false and worldly woman. No! give her to me now," he added, clasping me
to his heart with irresistible tenderness and passion. "Give her to me
now, in the bloom of her innocence, the flower of her youth, and I will
enshrine her in my heart as in a crystal vase, which they must break to
harm her."

The strong love and the strong will united were not to be opposed. Mrs.
Linwood was forced to yield; and when once her consent was given, mine
was supposed to be granted. She wished the wedding to be consummated in
the city, in a style consistent with his splendid fortune, and then our
rank in society; and therefore proposed the first month in winter, when
they usually took possession of their habitation in town.

He objected to this with all the earnestness of which he was master. It
was sacrilege, he said, to call in a gazing world, to make a mockery of
the holiest feelings of the heart, and to crush under an icy mountain of
ceremony the spontaneous flowers of nature and of love. He detested
fashionable crowds on any occasion, and most of all on this. Let it be
at Grandison Place, the cradle of his love, in the glorious time of the
harvest-moon, that mellow, golden season, when the earth wraps herself
as the

"Sacred bride of heaven,
Worthy the passion of a God."

So entirely did I harmonize with him in his preference for Grandison
Place, that I was willing the time should be anticipated, for the sake
of the retirement and tranquillity secured.

Madge Wildfire had returned to the city, declaring that lovers were the
most selfish and insipid people in the world,--that she was tired of
flirting with Ursa Major, as she called Mr. Regulus,--tired of teazing
Dr. Harlowe,--tired of the country and of herself.

The night before she left, she came to me in quite a subdued mood.