Alas! how fearful it seems to me, this
strange picture. Would I could see and thank him once more-take from
him any little commission that he might desire in his last moments
to transmit to his distant home-for a sister, mother, or brother.
Would that I could smooth his pillow and bathe his fevered brow; I
know he loves me, and these attentions would be so grateful to
him-so delightful to me. But alas! it would be considered a disgrace
for me to visit him."
Let the reader distinctly understand the feelings that actuated the
heart of the lovely girl. The idea of loving the wounded soldier had
never entered the proud but now humbled Isabella's thoughts. Could
such a thought have been by any means suggested to her, she would
have spurned it at once; but it was the woman's sympathy that she
felt for one who would have doubtless sacrificed his life for her
and hers; it was a simple act of justice she would have performed;
and the pearly tear that now wet her cheek, was that of sympathy,
and of sympathy alone. Beautiful trait, how glorious thou art in
all; but how doubly glorious in woman; because in her nature thou
art most natural, and there thou findest the congenial associations
necessary for thy full conception.
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